Australia & Japan - Performer, Producer & Teacher :

Now based permanently in Brisbane, Shen has also spent long periods in Japan and India, and has performed with leading Indian classical artists in all three countries, including vocalists Ustad Ghulam Sadiq Khan, Pt Ritwik Sanyal (Dhrupad), Pt Shantanu Bhattacharyya, late Smt. Raka Mukherjee, Sri Sugata Marjit, Sri Pinaki Bose, Smt Sunita Tikare, Smt Gauri Pathare, Sri Supriyo Dutta, and Smt Namita Mehta. He has accompanied many instrumentalists including Pt Kushal Das, Pt Sugato Nag, Pt Rabindra Goswami, Smt Sahana Banerjee, Smt Anupama Bhagwat (sitar), Pt Santosh Mishra, Sri Sangeet Mishra (sarangi), Pt Rajan Kulkarni, Pt Steve Oda, Sri Soumya Chakraverty (sarod), Pt Sukhdev Mishra (violin), Sri Manish Pingle (Mohan Veena), Sri Taro Terahara, Sri Vinod Prasanna (bansuri), and last but not least vocal-sitar duo Debapriya-Samanwaya. Within the field of Indian classical music, he is not only capable in the 4 fields of vocal accompaniment, instrumental accompaniment, Kathak dance accompaniment and tabla solo, but has also given successful accompaniment in Carnatic music, Odissi and Bharat Natyam dance performances. Now gaining confidence in the specialised art of Kathak, Shen has accompanied Smt Prerana Deshpande and her Brisbane-based student Dr Helena Joshi, Smt Malti Shyam, Smt Atsuko Maeda and students (Japan), and students of Smt Namita Debroy (Brisbane).

With over 25 years experience fusing tabla with musicians of a wide variety of styles, Shen is experienced in accompanying and coordinating an eclectic blend of artists into cohesive and harmonious wholes.

Current major performing projects include:

• Tibet2Timbuk2, with Tibetan singer Tenzin Choegyal and singer-guitarist Marcello Milani.
• Spirit of Bhakti, presenting original devotional songs by Rebecca Bornstein in collaboration with Indian vocalist Menaka Visvanathan Thomas.
• Yuki and Shen, presenting classical Dhrupad vocal and pakhawaj, bhajan and kirtan with tabla, and tabla solo.
• Other Indian classical collaborators in and around Brisbane include: Saikat Bhattacharya, Dr Indranil Chatterjee, Shrabani Choudhury (sitar), Vijaya and Menaka Visvanathan (Carnatic vocal), Rahim Zullah, Sulagna Basu, Tahir Qawwal (Hindustani vocal), Darshil Shah (bansuri), Darshana Hingu, and Helena Joshi (Kathak dance)

As an event producer, Shen is now primarily focused on cultivating Indian classical music in the Brisbane area. From 2014-2019, Shen organised an annual Brisbane Sangeet Mela, all-day Indian classical music festival, which brought together international, interstate and local artists as well as giving a platform to rising young artists in the Indian classical genre. The Ashu Babu Memorial Tabla School concert has run annually since 2008, and has become a little Sangeet Mela itself. In 2019 Shen instigated the founding of Queensland Sangeet Mela Association (QSMA), to foster the development of Indian classical music in Queensland.

Shen's CD appearances include Apo Gaga (Tibet2Timbuk2 - Tibetan world fusion, 2018), Open Door with devotional music group Spirit of Bhakti (2015), Deep (Taro Terahara - bansuri, 2011), Music is Life (Tibet2Timbuk2, 2008), and Rei-Mei ( Setsuo Miyashita - santoor, 2007), EthnoSuperLounge Live! - Jay Asu Babu (world music fusion compilation, 2000), Basant Panchami (Matthew Weekes - sitar, 2000), plus numerous cameo appearances on CDs in Australia and Japan with world music and rock artists.

In Australia, Japan and India, Shen has a number of tabla students, some of whom have gone on to study in Varanasi with Shen's guru-ji of tabla, Late Pt. Kaviraj Ashutosh Bhattacharya and in the music school which continues in his name. In Brisbane he opened the Ashu Babu Memorial Tabla School in 2006, with both adult and children's classes. Shen's lessons follow his Guru-ji's traditional classical style of teaching, emphasising quality of sound, refinement of hand-shape and development of technique and through devoted practice. Shen also supplies and repairs tabla and tabla accessories, trading as Tabla Wala Australia.

Shen can be contacted by email at shen@ethnosuperlounge.com, or by phone on 0415-106428 (Brisbane).