Introduction
Ronu Majumdar is a noted Indian flautist in the Hindustani classical music tradition.
Majumdar is a style maker and has invented a unique style of flute playing and rendering the raga, which is a mixture of 'Drupad Gayaki' with 'Laykari'.
Majumdar is credited with popularizing the Indian flute (bansuri) amongst the younger generation all over the world. Many young and upcoming flute players are following his style.
As another milestone for Majumdar, for the first time ever, Android has developed a dedicated app for listeners to enjoy his music.
Early life and training
Born in Varanasi on 28 July 1965, Ranendranath Majumdar, popularly known as Ronu, was trained under his father, Dr. Bhanu Majumdar, and later learned vocal music with the late Pt. Laxman Prasad Jaipurwale at whose behest he reverted to the flute. Pandit Vijay Raghav Rao, a music scholar, groomed Ronu into a concert flautist. He received training from his grand guru Pt. Ravi Shankar.
Awards, nominations, and music collaborations
In 1981, Ronu Majumdar won the first prize at the All India Radio competition, and the President's Gold Medal.
In 1996, Ronu received a Grammy nomination for his work on the album Tabula Rasa with Bela Fleck, the American banjo virtuoso. He has associated with Pandit Ravi Shankar on albums like Passages and Chants of India. He has more than 30 audio releases to his credit. He won the prestigious Aditya Vikram Birla Award in 1999 for his dedication to music. Sahara India Pariwar felicitated him with a lifetime achievement award on the occasion of Jyoti Diwas 2001. In 2014 he won the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi award.
Today, Ronu Majumdar is among the more popular musicians on this instrument, and is especially popular with the younger generation for his creative improvisations. Pt Majumdar's music is rooted in the Maihar gharana which has musicians of eminence like Pt Ravi Shankar and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan to its credit. Apart from his concerts all over India in different music festivals, he also participated in the Festival of India in Moscow and Asiad '82 in New Delhi. He has toured extensively in Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.
Majumdar is also known for a number of collaborations and jugalbandis with other leading instrumentalists. An innovative composer, he has also composed several pieces in a fusion of Hindustani classical with other forms of music, particularly Western classical music, including the projects Carrying Hope (Music Today), A Traveller's Tale, Song of Nature (Magnasound), Kal Akela Kahan (Plus Music).
He has also provided short training sessions to budding young artists like Raghavendran Rajasekaran from Singapore. Most recently Pt. Ronuji has conducted a concert of 5,378 flautists on one stage called Venu Naad under the banner of ‘Art of Living’. This event was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records.