Nitin Mitta

Nitin Mitta is a tabla player with a reputation for technical virtuosity, spontaneity, clarity of tone, and sensitivity to melodic nuances, who has performed with some of India’s most celebrated Hindustani classical musicians, including Pandit Jasraj, Dr. Prabha Atre, Pandits Rajan and Sajan Mishra, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, and Ustad Shahid Parvez, as well as many Carnatic musicians, such as Lalgudi G.J.R Krishnan and Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi. Nitin has collaborated with jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and electric guitarist R. Prasanna on Tirtha, and album that blends contemporary jazz with the North and South Indian traditional ragas and compositions. Another collaboration with R. Prasanna can be heard on the soundtrack of the documentary Smile Pinki. He has also performed and toured with singer and Juno Award nominee Kiran Ahluwalia. Born in Hyderabad in 1975, Nitin received his early training in Hyderabad from Pandit G. Satyanarayana, and gave his first solo tabla performance at the age of ten. During his studies he won many accolades, including first prize in the All India Competition held in Calcutta. To expand his repertoire of tabla compositions, he sought the guidance of Pandit Arvind Mulgaonkar of Mumbai. Both of Nitin’s gurus are disciples of the late Ustad Amir Hussain Khan Saheb, legendary doyen of the Farukhabad Gharana. After moving to the United States in 2002, Nitin received a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on Arts, and was a member of the faculty at the Learn Quest Academy of Music in Waltham, MA. He maintains a busy schedule of performances and tabla workshops, traveling throughout the U.S, Europe, Canada and India.