Teachers

Teaching Staff

In the Paragraphs below, AACMF sands for ‘Ali Akbar College of Music in Fremont’.

Each teacher at Sangeetaanjali has at least 20 years of rigorous music training under master musicians. A majority of the teachers are senior students of the great maestro, Padmabibhushan Ustad Ali Akbar Khan Sahib and the great tabla master Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri. All Sangeetaanjali teachers are well known performers of Indian classical music in the SF Bay Area and the USA, and some of them perform around the world. They are:

Shweta Jhaveri (vocal)
Smt Shweta Jhaveri, the only renowned female vocalist from Gujarat, was initially trained by late Pt Vilasrao Khandekar. Later, as a prominent disciple of Sangeet Martand Pdt. Jasraj, she accompanied her great guru on concert stages all over USA and Canada. Ustad Ali Akbar Khan Sahib kept her at the Ali Akbar College of Music as an assistant teacher for many years. Besides many CD recordings, Shweta has numerous performances every year all over USA, Canada, and India. Shweta is a great and sweet music teacher.

Gopa Raha (sitar & vocal)
Gopa learnt sitar and vocal music at the Ali Akbar College of Music for twenty two years. She has also been receiving intimate training for many years in both Vocal music and Sitar from eminent musicians like Pandit Falguni Mitra, Partha Chatterjee. She also received advanced music lessons from Dr. Sisirkana Dhar Choudhury. Gopa taught music at the AACMF from 1993 to 2004.

Nachiketa Sharma (vocal)
Nachiketa studied Hindustani Classical Music for four years under Sri B.N. Simha in Madras. Then, since the age of 12, he received rigorous training for many years under Padmabhushan Pt. Basavraj Rajguru, the great exponent from Dharwad. Nachiketa has performed many times in India and USA and has been featured on the radio and TV as well. He taught music at AACMF from 1995 to 2004.

Pranesh Khan (tabla)
Trained by his grandfather, the legendary Acharya Baba Allauddin Khan, and then by Ustad Alla Rakha, Ustad Zakir Hussain, and Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri for more than twenty years, Pranesh has accompanied many great artists all over India, USA and many countries in all the continents.

Nikhil Pandya (tabla)
First a student of Sri Prem Shankar Nayak in Valsad, Gujarat, Nikhil has been a disciple of Pdt Swapan Chaudhuri since 1990. Nikhil was s teacher in Fremont AACMF for 5 years. He is a popular performer who has already built a name in the SF Bay Area and has accompanied many famous senior artists.

Visiting Renowned artists from India occasionally teach at Sangeetaanjali as guest teachers.