A Journey Through India Classical Music
Advisory Board Members & Cultural Directors
Kushal Bose
Daniel Prabhakar
Vikram Rao
Salila Das
Arun Patel
Mona Roy
Sanjay Vinekar
Advisory Preamble:
Rhythm Eternal's Trustees serve as an Advisory Board to provide guidance and support to the organization as it navigates through functional and technical business issues to understand “best practices”, avoid major pitfalls en route to achieving its mission, and serve as Rhythm Eternal's Agent for any U.S. immigration matters. The Trustees are U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents, including experienced entrepreneurs, attorneys and business functional area professionals, who have already built their independent successful ventures, and are engaged in actively contributing that knowledge to helping Rhythm Eternal achieve it's mission of increased public awareness about the importance of music in daily lives for health and wellness and bridging cultural divides. Advisory Board Member bios provided below
Advisory Board and Trustees of Rhythm Eternal:
Kushal Bose learned singing from his mother Pratima Bose, a renowned singer of Radio and Television of her times, since he was five. Since then Kushal has been under tutelage in both Hindustani Classical and modern music from stalwarts like Ustad Sultan Khan, Salil Chowdhury, Jatileswar Mukhopadhyay, and others.
Plays, Operas and Musicals:
Kushal has written, directed and produced plays and musicals staged all across North America collaborating with artists like Ustad Zakir Hussain, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Ustad Sultan Khan, Sivamani, Ustad Ashish Khan, and many others. Musicals and plays Kushal has written, directed and produced and/or participated in
1998 – Swami Vivekananda - Centennial celebration of Life of Swamiji at the Chicago Art Institute
2000 – Dusk to Dawn, a musical journey of different Raga’s through a 24-hour time cycle
2002 – The Journey, depicting eternal journey of life punctuated by steam locomotive metaphor
2004 – Masters of Percussion, showcasing variety of folk music, dances and Instruments from India
Daniel Prabhakar has a deep understanding of both Hindustani and Carnatic music, playing Tabla since the age of seven. His formal training has been under the guidance of Shri Sachhidanand Phadke in Pune, India. He also trainind by attending the workshop conducted by Ustad Zakir Hussain at Omega, Rinebeck, New York. He trained under Pt. Yogesh Samsi and continues under the senior disciple of Anirban Roy Chowdhury. He is an excellent Tabla player who had the opportunity of accompanying on Tanpura many renowned artists like Pt. Ravi Shankar, Pt. Hari Prasd Chaurasia, Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma, Pt. Ramesh Mishra, Kartik Sheshadri, Purbayan Chatterjee, Anoushka Shankar, and Sitaram Gadgil. He accompanied on Tabla for various artists such as T. M. Sounderrajan, P. Sushila, S. Janaki, P. B. Sriniva, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, and Hari Om Sharan, among some. He also plays harmonium, sitar, guitar, and piano. He has recorded music for many CDs and Cassettes. He is an ex-World Bank staff.
Vikram Rao hails from a family of music enthusiasts. Right from early childhood, he has been exposed to both Indian and Western, mostly popular, music. In high school, at Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala, he picked up playing Saxophone and performed in his high school band for 5 years. In addition to playing all the band tunes, he was adept at playing Indian and Western popular music, performed in high school rock shows, and won accolades in Indian classical music competitions. After graduating from Engineering school, he picked up playing keyboard and played occasionally in certain cultural events. Currently he resides in Princeton and works in New York City for an Investment bank and is focusing all his energy to ensure that his sons pick up formal trainings in both Indian and Western classical music and continue to uphold the legacy of these great arts.
Salila Das is a US citizen and has been living in the US for 46 years. Professionally, she was a teacher and educational administrator but is now retired. Throughout the decades, Salila has been a very active member of the Indian diaspora in every town she has inhabited, organizing various spiritual and cultural programs. She received music tutelage from her uncle S. Dutta (a tabla player who worked with SD Burman among others). Throughout the decades, she has been involved with various chapters of the ‘Vedanta Society’ spiritual community by organizing and holding various programs.
Arun Patel is a US citizen and has been living in the US for 36 years. Professionally, He is an electrical engineer, but he sits on a number of advisory boards as a guide and advisor.
Arun is a very active advocate and member of the 'Swadhyay' spiritual community and organization. One of the group's main aims is to promote spiritual and emotional wellbeing in society. Arun has always loved music- listening, watching it being performed live, organizing performances and supporting various artists; and most importantly, Playing and learning Music himself.
All three of Arun's children have inherited his love for music. Especially his younger son Nirmal, who has been learning the percussion rhythm drum - Tabla since the age of 4. Arun is actively involved in promoting and guiding the activities and work of Rhythm Eternal in teaching Indian classical music to the Indian diaspora and members of western society in the US.
Mona Roy is born and raised in the U.S. and has been playing piano since the age of 7. She has had both Western and Eastern training in music. Professionally, she is an intellectual property attorney. Mona is actively involved in the promotion of Indian music while teaching Indian music to the young children in the US. Mona has always loved music — listening, watching it being performed live, organizing performances and supporting various artists as well as continuing to play and teach music to children.
Sanjay Vinekar and has lived in the US for the last 40 years. He is an electrical engineer by training and has worked on and continues to be involved with a number of emerging technologies.
He is a passionate lover of Hindustani classical music, and also a self taught amateur musician. He has been active in organizing music concerts in the New Jersey area over the last few years.