Sri Somnath Roy is truly a name to reckon with in the select band of versatile percussionists. Apart from performing on a variety of Indian, eastern and western percussion instruments which has naturally come to him at very young age, Somnath in one among the few north Indian musicians who have studied the South Indian style of rhythm structures, calculations and most importantly the art of playing the earthen clay pot GHATAM which is an exclusive percussion instrument of the South Indian classical music. With his widened knowledge in multi-percussion and rich orchestrating experience Somnath is giving the art of percussion a new aesthetic touch.
Born in a pious music loving family in 1971 at Howrah, West Bengal, Somnath has shown remarkable inclination towards various musical instruments even from his very childhood. Keenly observing classical and neo classical music and trying a variety of instruments whenever an opportunity strikes. Somnath kept his passion intact for many years. He started learning the Hindustani Flute from Sri Nepal Sarkar and went on to learn western percussion and art of playing western percussion from Sri Amal Roy and dholak Sri Bablu Biswas respectively.
His unbridled urge to explore beyond frontier of Hindustani laya system took him to Pandit Sri S. Shekar, the legendary Mridangam maestro of Kolkata after initiating Somnath into fundamentals and intricacies of laya of Carnatic percussion for a couple of years, Pandit Shekar advised Somnath to learn unique art of ghatam playing from the 'numero uno' in Ghatam today , Shri V Suresh who lives in Chennai. Shri V Suresh who lives in Chennai. Shri Suresh trained Somnath under Gurukul system (where the student lives with the guru's family and learns the art for some years) for more than two years, guiding him in the authentic, fingering techniques of ghatam.
He accompanied legend classical Artists like Sangeeta Kalanidhi Dr. T.K.Moorthy,Dr.N.VijayShiva,Ustad Amzad Ali Khan,Padmabibhusan Dr.M.Balamuralikrishna Ustad Sujat Khan,Pt. Anindya Chatterjee,Pt.Abhijit Bannerjee,Bickram Ghosh, Grammy award winner Pt. Viswa Mohan Bhatt. Etc
He is working for Bengali film industry for last 25years. Somnath worked with legend film director like Sandip Roy, Goutam Ghosh,Rituparno Ghosh, Bappaditya Bandopadhyay Prabhat Roy etc.
He collaborate with Balinese Gamelon group from Indonesia. He collaborates with great international artist like Yuval Ron from Middle East. With great bass guitarist Kai eckardt, classical guitarist farid haque, Paul Livingstone, Giulliano Moderelli and many more. He has a unique California based band called asian drums with a Japanese drummer Shoji Khameda.
He has attended several music festival like Dover lane conference, Uttar para sangeet chakra, international society for laya awareness, Bhimsen Samaroho, madras music academy, Malaga festival, international sacred music festival etc.
Somnath did fellowship under UCLA, on 2006. He toured all over the world like USA, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, UK, Sweden, Belarus, Russia, Trinidad&tobago, Oman etc.
He has manyCD's internationally as soloist and accompanist. He has accompanied for GRAMMY NOMINATED Album named" OM NAMAH NARAYANA" in 2010. His unique instrumental CD based on five elements of earth going to realese on mar,2015 named ELEMENT SPEAKS(Bihaan Music).and Natures treasure( Times Music ,2016. Somnath make a unique fusion band call "SOUL CALL" a unique blending of Indian and ethnic music. Toured under ICCR to Sweden and Belarus.
He played prestigious festivals in India and abroad .Somnath got Best percussionist award from ATN at 2003.*He is the pioneer of the style of North Indian style of Ghatam.
