T M Ahmed Kaysher

T M Ahmed Kaysher is a poet, fiction-writer, film and literature critic, director of Bengali village opera as well as the director of Saudha, Society of Poetry and Indian Music (www.saudha.org), one of the leading South Asian classical as well as global music platforms in UK.

Saida Tani

Saida Tani is a Bangladeshi singer, songwriter, internationally accomplished and published performer. Best known for her folk, semi-classical, spiritual unique style of singing and elegant traditional visual appearance. She wants to represent Bangla music internationally and spread love through music.

Dr Rossella Bondi

Rossella Maria Bondi studied singing and piano at the Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella in Naples. After her graduation, she started her performance career with the Cantori di Posillipo in both classical and jazz repertoire. In Italy she also studied with the distinguished tenors Amedeo Moretti and Giacomo Bruccoleri and in England with the celebrated opera singers Rhiannon James, Jean Allister and Anthea Parashchak. She has made radio broadcasts and performed as a soloist and in ensembles in Italy, France and England. In Oxford she regularly performs in the Holywell Music Room and the Maison Française with the Occitan group Oxford Trobadors. Her repertoire is increasingly focused on Neapolitan songs, Arie Antiche and Occitan music. Rossella is also much in demand as a teacher both for singing and piano for all ages and levels. In addition, she has a PhD in Comparative Literature and has published a book on French avant-garde with Peter Lang entitled "À la recherche de l’homme nouveau":

Amith Dey

Amith Dey is a versatile singer, a keyboard player, as well as a multi-instrumentalist.Learnt indian classical music under the guidance of Pt Ramkanai Das, Ustad Arun Talukdar, Chanagopal Sarkar, Bijon Roy. Amith became a popular young singer in his own town called Sylhet in Bangladesh. Currently he is learning under the guidance of Smt Chandra Chakrabarty. He started experimenting with modern music while he came to the UK and formed a Bengali experimental band called London DC with other talented musicians. For his mature music sense, he became the number one choice for keyboard accompaniment with many maestroes of Indian classical and contemporary music. He sings both semi-classical, modern and folk music and has performed for Saudha Bangla Music Festival, World Poetry and Saudha Indian classical music festival in Leeds, RadhaRaman Folk Festival, Baul and Vaishnav Music Festival, Union chapel, Shakespeare’s Globe Alchemy Festival at SouthBank Centre, Birmingham symphony hall,Royal Albert hall and many mainstream major music festivals all around the UK.

Professor Ray Noble

Ray Noble is an academic, novelist, musician, singer and songwriter and a lead vocalist with the Oxford Trobadors. Ray has appeared on radio and television, including BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour and Radio 3 Night Waves. His music has featured on Korean and French Television and in British Radio broadcasts. He had the honour of performing with the celebrated Occitan Folk group, Peiraguda, at the Centenary Celebration of Occitan culture La Félibrée 2019 à Périgueux.

Ray’s distinctive, versatile voice has been described variously as deep and cavernous to soft and velvet ranging from rock, pop, blues and jazz to folk and classic in style. He has been a vocalist in Jazz and Blues groups performing at the Edinburgh Fringe and was lead vocalist in the Oxford based rock band, The HeartBeats. Ray published his first novel, It Wasn't Always Late Summer, in January 2014.

Professor Raymond Noble is a theoretical biologist and ethicist and an Honorary Associate Professor at the Institute for Women’s Health at UCL where he was Deputy Dean of Life Sciences, sub dean in the medical school, and graduate tutor in women’s health. He has worked in India and South Africa where he has held an Honorary Professorship in medical ethics.

Gouri Chowdhury

Being voted as the best British South Asian singer in the UK, Gouri Choudhury is the one of the finest ambassadors of Bengali/South Asin music in the UK. She was featured as vocalist in the popular English Rock band Kula Shaker in 1996 and Crispian Mills on Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts. in 1999. For her extraordinary singing, she was praised and admired by the Sitar maestro Ravi Shnkar and the Beatles-star George Harrison.

Gouri Choudhury was awarded as the Best Singer by Bangla TV in 2004, BIMA in 2004, ATN Bangla TV in 2005 and the community award for Best Singer by Channel S in 2006. She won the "Best Performance Award" after being asked by Zee TV to perform on their show Antaksari in 2002. She represented Bangladesh in a popular TV reality show Sa Re Ga Ma in 2011 as the top performer. Recently she received the community champion award by Canary Wharf management group and then as the best inspirational woman by Nari Chetona in London.

Gouri Chowdhury performed in Royal Albert Hall and led a Bengali choir of 1000 non-Bengali children at the SouthBank centre in London and all major mainstream art-venues in the UK. She also performed in many historic concerts around the USA, Canada and all across Europe.

Denis Noble

Denis Noble is the founder of the OXFORD TROBADORS. He first discovered the Occitan language in 1972, still being spoken in a tiny village near the birthplace of Arnaut Daniel, who composed La Sestina in 1180. It is one of the songs in today's concert. Denis Noble has frequently broadcast in Occitan and French on French radio and TV, most recently by performing and interpreting La Sestina in the remains of the Chateau de Riberac.

He is also an Oxford University professor who constructed the world's first model of the heart pacemaker in 1960. He is the author of two popular books, The Music of Life and Dance to the Tune of Life.

Baul Shohid

My name is Baul Shohid and I am a International folk Bengali singer and lyricist. I was born and bought up in Bangladesh Sylhet in 1968, I have lived in Duara Tana within the Sunamganj district in 1976 where my love and understanding for music exhalted. Being a singer, musician(including playing the violin, dhol du-tara and harmonium etc) and rhythmic song writing,I have been able to derive my passion for music from such a young age. In 1995 I came to London and performed in every Bengali channel including ATN Bangla, Channel S, Bangla Tv, NTV and ION TV etc. Also I was able to perform live on stage and TV in the Boishaki mela which is a very popular music festival held in London. Travelling and singing internationally, I have been able to express my culture in all over USA, Europe, Asia and Middle East.

In 2014 I have won the Baul Shomrat Shah Abdul Karim song awards organised by CoBBC in Oxfordshire, this lead me to winning first place with a prized gift of £10,000 and releasing a CoBBC album in Bangladesh Dhaka. Decades of experience within the Bangla music industry, has gifted me wise knowledge and deep understanding of Bengali music and culture which I then and still am passing on to my music students till this day and onwards. Cultural diversity is very important to me, therefore I would like express Bangladeshi music across the world.