A 36-years-old artist from Mathura, Sourav Kaushik, has been learning music through the blessings of God. He began to play the tabla from a very young age taking inspiration from the diaspora of incredible musicians who lived in and around him and credits his observation skills to be his first guru. He has been working hard towards achieving mastery in his craft and pursues it with soaring passion. He did his masters in music (tabla) from Prayag Sangeet Samiti, Allahabad. He has always idolized great artists like Ravi Rakesh from Delhi and Misra Ji from Firozabad and considers them as his biggest inspiration and speaks very highly of their teaching and calibre in the field of music, and that is reflected in his playing style. He also believes that music is a great gift to mankind and says, “Whether there is joy or sorrow, I will keep pursuing music today and tomorrow.” When he was in his youth, he would try to imitate the tablist and dholak player in his village and thus picked up the dholak and never stopped learning. Apart from Braj Lok Geet, he is also very proficient in light music and performs with a various reputed ghazal, bhajan, and sugam sangeet artists. He has performed in several locations within the state and the country. He has received appreciation and love at numerous festivals and stages across India and pulled off brilliant performances at festivals in Nepal and Bhutan. He regards his performance at the Music festival in Mumbai as the most memorable experience. He lives in a family of 4 people and has his wife, one son, and a daughter. Other than music, he also has a business to make ends meet. With the pandemic, the future looked very uncertain, and earning just by performing became difficult. Despite all his struggles, he strives to keep developing his craft and aspires someday, in the future, to see himself succeed through the art that he loves so much.
- Braj
- Uttar Pradesh