Techie Musician

“My family members completely devoted themselves to music though their profession was entirely different. My father is a mathematician and a violinist. My mother is a PhD- science teacher and vocalist. My sister is an international artist and often performs with me at juggal bandis.”

First Concert

At the age of six, Sameep surrounded himself with instruments like tabla, harmonium, sitar, tampura and violin. He was motivated to learn tabla by his parents to accompany his elder sister for her concerts. But it was only at the age of seven, he realised that he was made for sitar. He attended a concert of well-known sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan and fell in love with instrument. From then on, he started learning sitar alongside tabla.

He is now learning sitar under Ustad Shahid Parvez – a noted sitar player of Hindusthani music – after he was immensely attracted by his style. “I did my first concert at the age of 8. At that age, I didn’t even know what stage fear was but as I grew older and started performing more shows I was more conscious. My guru played tabla for me in my first concert and that was the real motivation for me. But now after doing so many concerts it’s just another show for me.”

Passion Vs Profession

Sameep who has done more than 500 concerts till now manages his profession and passion giving equal importance for both. Managing the balance between these two streams sounds extremely difficult. But for Sameep it’s a simple thing. “I work in my office for the whole day and then practice sitar from 9 in the night till 2 daily. I do concerts only on holidays.”

He has done more than 30 international shows and has also won many awards like ‘The Best Artist In The IT’ award by Computer Society of India (2007), Maestro honour by Aperture India Art gallery (2008) and Orkut Heroes (2009) to name a few.

Unforgettable Moments

Recalling some of his most memorable moments in life, Sameep says that his performance at Ahmednagar and at a Cancer hospital were unforgettable. “Last year I had a concert at a sports ground in Ahmednagar, a city in Maharashtra. I knew previously that concert is going to be huge but when I went on the stage, I could see that the stadium was filled and there were more than 50,000 people in the stadium.

This was the biggest concert I ever did another message which I got through the concert was that the interest on musical instruments like sitar are still alive in people. The next was at a Cancer hospital. The patients were critically ill, but they were listening enjoying the concert. I was touched to know that not a single person in the audience will be alive for my next concert there.”

Attracted by Sameep’s magic on strings he has build a huge friend-web around him in personal and through online communities like Orkut where he has more than 2500 friends.