Sahana Bajpaie is a artist from Bangladesh, better known as the namesake of a raaga (melody mode) in Indian classical music.
Background
Sahana was born in Santiniketan, West Bengal and started taking music lessons from her father Bimal Bajpaie, a Tagore scholar, at child age. She learnt her first song at the age of three. Both of her parents were professors of Political Science in North Bengal University.
She lived in Santiniketan from 1982 until 2002. Sahana trained in Indian classical music and Rabindra Sangeet under Bijoy Sinha, Chitra Roy, Shyamoli Bandopadhyay, Chandan Mand and Mita Huq.
Education
She was brought up and educated in Tagore's own land, Santiniketan, West bengal, India.
Sahana was in the faculty of English department in BRAC University from May 2005 until May 2008. She pursued further studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She is currently a Lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies.
Career
She along with Bangladeshi musician Arnob founded the sufi-baul fusion band, Bangla. In 2007 her album on Tagore Songs Notun Kore Pabo Boley was released by Bengal Music Company. The soundscape was designed and composed by Arnob. She wrote songs for Arnob and performed vocals for his solo albums - Chaina Bhabish (2006), Hok Kolorob (2007) and Doob (2008). She had performed at Alexander Hall, Canary Wharf, London, with the band Bangla in 2006.
Sahana had been performing in India and Bangladesh since 1998. Here is a partial list of her performances:
At the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Downing Street, Cambridge in 2009.
At Hampstead Heath Town Hall, for Tagore the World Traveller with the stalwart Pramita Mallick and Prof. Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs in London 2010.
At at the University of Manchester hall for Tagore Night, Manchester in 2010. She performed Tagore’s Dance Drama, ‘Chandalika’ at Nehru Centre in London in 2010.
At the London School of Economics (LSE) opening ceremony of Literature Festival in London in 2011. Celebrating Rabindranath Tagore's 150th anniversary, this production marked his seminal contribution to Indian fiction with his short stories.
At the Hampstead Town Hall in a programme titled A Tribute to Suchitra Mitra - Tobu Mone Rekho February which was organised by Moksha and Sangeet Kala Academy in London in 2011.