Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

Musician Abhijit Anchortassoo says his interest in Indian classical music began when his family sent him to classes in the genre at age eight. Now, at age 20, he says music is what he wants to do for the rest of his life.

Anchortassoo plays a wide range of instruments, including the harmonium, guitar, piano, steelpan, mandolin, violin, dholak, tabla and the tassa, and is also a vocalist. In 2007, he entered his first competition, Children of Mastana Bahar, which he won. He won third place in WIN TV’s Chhote Champs and the NCIC/Coca Cola Youth Champ Competition. In secondary school he also won awards in school competitions, especially in the Raga singing category.
Anchortassoo recently completed the Certificate in Music at UWI St. Augustine’s Department of Creative and Festival Arts and intends to do his Bachelor’s Degree. “After I finish that, I want to teach in secondary schools and have my own private classes. Eventually I plan to do my Masters and then one good day become a music lecturer, maybe here in UWI itself. I’d like to go abroad to study at some point, especially for my Masters.”
He thanked his family for their support in his chosen career path. “My dad and my grandfather are my biggest inspirations. They teach me what they know and they are always inspiring me to learn new stuff. Without their support, none of this would be possible. It’s not just my dad, it’s my grandparents, my mom, they keep telling me this is what I am made to do and never give up and they support me 100%.”
Anchortassoo said his love of Indian music comes from the way it is put out to the world. “We have over 200 compositions, ragas we call them and you can sing and create. If people are feeling happy, you can sing a sad composition and everyone becomes sad, it’s basically a spectrum of emotions from these compositions that really impacts and hits people deeply. It’s basically because of the diversification and the deepness of the music, it’s really deep and to me it’s something that’s close to my very being, I love it.” However, he said he does not want to constrict himself to one type of music. “I want to do some jazz, do some chorale, voice, and piano and learn to sight read, etc. I don’t want to be stagnating in one musical style, even though Indian classical music is pretty uncommon outside of India and Trinidad. I wouldn’t mind being an ambassador for Indian classical music, but I want to try all kinds of music.”
Anchortassoo said he follows his passion because he’s genuinely happy when he’s doing music. “To new musicians, I would say never give up, but understand the road is going to be very rough and there will be challenges and setbacks. A lot of people will say you don’t have a future in music but if you genuinely love it and this is what you feel you are good at and you’re happy, continue and don’t ever stop, find the avenues to keep going forward and better yourself.”