Physics teacher turned musician, Debjit Mahalanobis is a unique confluence of western classical music and the influences of Indian classical music. Debjit hails from the family of scientist and statistician, Father of Indian Statistics, P.C. Mahalanobis, on his paternal side and musician Pt. Ramshankar Bhattacharya, founder of the Bishnupur Dhrupad Dhamar gharana, on his mother’s side.

Coming from a family of academicians and engineers he studied and built a career in physics and computers, however the haunt of music lured him into the play of the double bass, the world’s biggest string instrument and the last of the violin family. He has blended the strings of an 18th century western classical musical instrument with the melodies of traditional Indian classical music. Debjit is currently the disciple of the Rudraveena expert Ustad Bahauddin Dagar of the 13th century Dagarvani gharana, under whom he explores the low earthy natural frequency of his instrument in the forms of the Dhrupad tradition. Debjit had for a decade learned the double bass in the western classical tradition from Abraham Mazumdar, since then he has interacted and played with maestros like Dr. Hans Juergen Nagel, Nicholas Pendlebury, Karen Gorden and maestro Zubin Mehta. Debjit has played with numerous orchestras such as the Indian National Youth, The Bombay Chamber, the Bangalore City Chamber, The Indo-European Chamber, The Kolkata Symphony, The Calcutta Chamber, and the South Asian Symphony Orchestra.

Recently, Sangeet Kala Mandir premiered an online concert oriented around his compositions on the double bass collaborating with artists on the Sitar and the rhythm of Kathak to produce a soulful collection – Double Bass India. Over the last few years he has been part of multiple international residency programs and he has been composing and playing music for the indie music scene, in ad jingles, theatre productions, television shows, regional and national films.

Debjit calls it a journey. A journey where he is connecting to his roots, learning and internalising the past with the present and the haunts of the future. This reflects in his music as which is an exploration to transcend barriers and to let music flow.