South Asian Classical Music Society (Chicago)

04/01/2026

Great opportunity to hear the master sitarist in recital in an intimate space.

Incomparable Pt Kushal Das, accompanied by Indranil Mallick on tabla, performs in the beautifully curated space at The Organic Gardener.

03/22/2026

SACMS proudly presents Kushal Das on the sitar and Indranil Mallick on the tabla this April!
April 24, 7pm
At the Organic Gardener
2929 MacArthur Blvd, Northbrook, IL-60062
Kushal Das (born 1959, Kolkata) is one of the leading sitar and surbahar players of contemporary Hindustani classical music. Kushal Das’s music is characterized by detailed raga architecture, balanced layakari, and a melodic approach that blends tradition with individual expression.
Indranil Mallick, a leading tabla player of his generation, excels both as soloist and accompanist. After training under numerous fine teachers from the age of 5, he enjoys the auspicious guidance of Pt. Swapan Chaudhuri of Lucknow Gharana. He has won numerous awards including a first in the prestigious Dover Lane Music Competition, and “ Best Talent Of The Year” awarded by the H.M.V Music Corporation.
Link in bio!

03/13/2026

Lyon Leifer is recognized in Europe, the Americas, China and India as a master flutist who performs both on western flutes and on the bansuri (north Indian keyless bamboo flute). After early studies in Chicago with Emil Eck and Walfrid Kujala, Mr. Leifer attended the Juilliard School of Music where he studied with Julius Baker. After graduating, he became a member of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Pursuing an interest in improvised raga music and flute playing in India, he then accepted a Fulbright Grant to study there with Devendra Murdeshwar, the inheritor of the legacy of the great Pannalal Ghosh. Remaining in India for five years, Mr. Leifer won the praise of Indian audiences and critics for his authentic renditions of raga melodies.
Returning to Chicago, Mr. Leifer became one of the city's leading flutists and flute teachers. He gives recitals on Western flutes, both period and modern, and performed as principal flutist for the twenty-year run of the Ars Viva Orchestra and for twenty-seven years in the group, Music of the Baroque. There he was often featured soloist in that ensemble's concerts and syndicated broadcasts. He also held the first flute chair in the Lake Forest Symphony for several years until its demise at the outset of the Covid 19 pandemic.
In 2019, he won another Fulbright Grant to study the current state of bansuri playing and making in India, spending two months in country and taking part in a number of seminars organized in different parts of the country for that purpose.
See Lyon's students, as well as the students of other stalwart teachers in the Chicago area, at SACMS's student recital on Sunday, March 15, 12:30pm, at National India Hub in Schaumburg.

03/13/2026

Mrs. Manjiri Vaishampayan is a vocal artist in Hindustani classical music of the Jaipur gharana. She has undertaken very extensive and rigorous vocal training in Jaipur Atroli Gharana from her guru, the legendary late Pandita Smt. Dhondutai Kulkarni.
Manjiri’s classical vocal learning for more than two decades has been in typical Guru-Shishya tradition. Manjiri has been awarded the prestigious “Sur Mani” award by Sur Singar Sansad in India. Using her melodious voice, Manjiri presents various pure Raagas and Jod Raagas. She also renders performances in semi-classical like thumari, hori, dadara, and bhajans.
She is the founder and director of “Swara Sadhana Music Academy” and lives in northwest suburbs of Chicago and teaches Hindustani classical vocal music.
See Ms. Manjiri's students, as well as the students of other stalwart teachers in the Chicago area, at SACMS's student recital on Sunday, March 15, 12:30pm, at National India Hub in Schaumburg.

03/13/2026

Hindole Majumdar occupies a commendable position amongst the tabla players of his generation. Inspired by his maternal grandfather, Late Sri Chittaranjan Roy, an ardent music lover, and his mother, Late Sunanda Majumdar, a teacher by profession and a Kathak dancer disciple of Pandit RamgopalMishra of the Jaipur gharana, Hindole started learning tabla at the tender age of 5. In his very first performance at the age of 10, he completely enthralled the audience.
He received his first formal training from Shri Shibshankar Karmakar, a disciple of Ustad KaramatullahKhan, Farukkhabad Gharana. He continues to receive training from the great tabla maestro Pandit SankhaChatterjee (of the Punjab and Farukkhabad Gharana) in a guru-shishya parampara.He has also had the opportunity to learn South Indian Rhythm style from the Mridangam exponent Pandit S.Shekhar.
Hindole now performs all over the globe accompanying various artists, and his work and experiment is critically acclaimed by music enthusiasts all over the globe. He has accompanied illustrious musicians of Indian Classical music like Ustad Shahid Parvez, Dr. N. Rajam, Ustad Shujaat Khan, Pandit VishwamohanBhatt, Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya, Pandit Rupak Kulkarni, Pandit Rakesh Chaurasia, Vidwan ShashankSubramanium, Pandit Sanjeev Abhyankar, Pandit Jayteerth Mevundi, Vidwan Lalgudi Krishnan, VidwanGanesh Rajgopalan to name a few. He has collaborated with world music percussionists like Doyra player Abbos Kosimov, four time Grammy award winner Glenn Velez, Saxophonist George Brooks ,Piano player Utsav Lal and world renowned Mridangam exponent Legendary Trichy Sankaran.
Hindole has founded the Hindole Majumdar School of Music and Dance in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in USA where he teaches Tabla and Indian Rhythm on a regular basis. He has also numerous CD’s audio and video albums released by various record companies including his own record label Sunanda Records.
See Mr. Hindole's students, as well as the students of other stalwart teachers in the Chicago area, at SACMS's student recital on Sunday, March 15, 12:30pm, at National India Hub in Schaumburg.

03/13/2026

Saraswathi Ranganathan is an award-winning passionate practitioner of the Veena, and cultural ambassador credited to introducing this ancient Southern Indian acoustic instrument across remote corners of the globe: All while accomplishing her mission of connecting cross cultural communities with the message of love and peace, transcending race, religion, culture and color.

Saraswathi Ranganathan has been co-curator of the Chicago International Veena Fest for the past decade; founder of Surabhi Ensemble, a world music collective, creatively conceptualizing sounds of the Veena for today's polarized world; with the goal of to

While Saraswathi blazes her trail with a legacy of many firsts, she has the unique distinction of being the first artiste to introduce Veena to the Theatre-world in Disney’s Jungle Book musical production; The first Indian woman to win the Chicago music awards twice, and for being one of the chosen artistes as the face of Chicago Year of Music. And more recently the first Veena artiste for winning the mid Atlantic international tour grant 2025. For her work on Ragas as a vehicle of cross cultural connections, and several artistic collaborations, Saraswathi won the Chicago Music Special Award of Honor 2021. With her world music collective, Saraswathi has toured across Spain, Portugal, Vietnam, Senegal, India and Mexico!
See Ms. Saraswathi's students, as well as the students of other stalwart teachers in the Chicago area, at SACMS's student recital on Sunday, March 15, 12:30pm, at National India Hub in Schaumburg.

03/13/2026

Mrs. Minu Pasupathi started her initial classical music training from Smt. Leelavathi Venkatachar and continued her advanced training from Smt. Vijaya Nagarajan and Chitraveena Sri. Ganesh Sudarshan.
Minu has her master’s degree in South Indian Classical Music from the University of Madras, India. Since 2011, Minu has been the Director of South Asian Music Ensemble (SAME) at the University of Chicago, Hyde Park, IL.
Minu is also the Founder Director of Akshaya Music Academy in Rolling Meadows, IL. She has been teaching vocal music to aspiring students of all ages since 1990 in person & online. Her unique & creative style of teaching has made her the most popular teacher in the area.
With a wonderful versatile voice, Minu has performed concerts in various South Indian genres namely Carnatic Classical, Folklore, Devotional songs, Film music, etc.
She is also the most sought-after vocalist for various Dance recitals such as Bharathanatyam, Kuchupudi, Kathak & Bollywood.
Minu has given several Lecture Demonstrations, Voice culture workshops & has also judged music competitions in prestigious organizations in various states of USA, India & Singapore.
Minu has given several Lecture Demonstrations, Voice culture workshops & has also judged music competitions in prestigious organizations in various states of USA, India & Singapore.

See Ms. Minu's students, as well as the students of other stalwart teachers in the Chicago area, at SACMS's student recital on Sunday, March 15, 12:30pm, at National India Hub in Schaumburg.

03/13/2026

Jayashree Venkatesh lives in Chicago, Illinois and is a Carnatic musician and performs classical and fusion music. She grew up in the South Indian cultural hub of Chennai and learnt Carnatic music from her mom Shantha Visvanathan and later from Smt.Savithri Sathyamurti and Dr.Nithyasree Mahadevan.

She moved to Chicago in 2002 and did her masters in management from DePaul University, Chicago. Jayashree has set up a music school by name Sampradhaya and has trained 100+ students and performed at leading venues in India and USA.

Jayashree released her 1st Carnatic album “Amrutavarshini“ in 2009 released by the Consulate General of Chicago followed by album Divine Melodies available for stream on Spotify. She has continued to release many pure classical and fusion albums and composed many songs. She has performed for many major organizations.

Jayashree has been recognized with awards by organizations as SAPNA, Sivan Arts Academy, Anu Shruti Arts.

Jayashree has performed regularly since 2005 at the Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam, Cleveland Tyagaraja Utsavam, Sri Venkateshwara Temple, Aurora, IL, Trinity Datta Yoga Center, SAPNA, women’s day events, Consulate of India, Chicago Summer Music Festivals, SchaumburgFest To name a few. Jayashree also performs Indian Film Music and Fusion Music And led the Indian Raga Fellowship program as COO in 2014.
See Ms. Jayashree's students, as well as the students of other stalwart teachers in the Chicago area, at SACMS's student recital on Sunday, March 15, 12:30pm, at National India Hub in Schaumburg.

03/13/2026

03/13/2026

Presenting Ms. Jai Sovani!
Jai was initiated into music by Smt. Anuradha Garud whose guidance helped her
secure a scholarship by Govt. of India. The Scholarship facilitated her to stay
with and learn in Gurukul pattern under one of India’s best classical musicians of
our times “Ganasaraswati Kishori Amonkar”. She has continued on her path of
learning under Smt. Arati Ankalikar- Tikekar with whom she has accompanied
on various performances across USA and India.

She has performed classical, semi-classical and fusion vocal music all over USA
and India. She is a visiting lecturer at Northern Illinois University, IL, University of
Wisconsin-Parkside and North Park University in Chicago, IL
She also works with Chicago Immigrant Orchestra where she collaborates with
multi-ethnic musicians from all around the world like Jamaican,Nigerian, French,
Middle Eastern, Mongolian, Taiwanese, Chinese etc
She teaches Classical, semi classical, bhajans and has classes in Chicago
suburbs as well as online via Skype.
See Ms. Jai's students, as well as the students of other stalwart teachers in the Chicago area, at SACMS's student recital on Sunday, March 15, 12:30pm, at National Indoa Hub in Schaumburg.

03/12/2026

Get ready for SACMS' spring lineup! Registration links in bio as they become available.