Mir Naqibul Islam
Mir Naqibul Islam (b. 1989 in Dhaka, Bangladesh) is a New York tri-state area based tabla player from the farukhabad gharana. He has trained in the traditional guru-shishya parampara pedagogical convention of North Indian classical music from Pandit Ashoke Paul, a disciple of the great Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh. Mir began learning tabla at the age of seven from Pt. Madan Gopal Das at Chhayanaut, a renowned music school in Dhaka, and completed a six-year-long course from 1996 to 2001. Thereafter, he continued onto advanced tabla studies with Pandit Ashoke Paul from the farukhabad gharana. During 2010–2012, he also received training in the benaras gharana of tabla from Pandit Gopal Mishra at the Indira Gandhi Cultural Center in Dhaka. Mir was also connected to the Bengal Parampara Sangeetlaya (BPS), Dhaka as a music scholar from 2014–2016 under Guru Padma Shri Pandit Suresh Talwalkar and received training in the delhi gharana of tabla during this time. Currently, Mir is continuing his advanced tabla studies with the legendary maestro Pandit Anindo Chatterjee.
Mir regularly performs tabla solo recitals and in addition to accompanying vocalists, instrumentalists, and dancers from South Asian traditions including Hindustani and Bengali classical and semi-classical forms. He also frequently performs with musicians from a wide variety of other traditions, bringing tabla to jazz, chamber music, maqam musics, and hip hop among others. Mir has received international acclaim for his performances for diverse audiences across Bangladesh, India, and the US. He has performed with world renowned musicians such as Pandit Krishna Mohan Bhatt, Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya, Pandit Anirban Dasgupta, Pandit Steve Gorn, Vidushi Bharati Pratap, Michael Harrison, Gyan Riley, Ben Monder and Premik Russel among others. He has been an active member of the New York based musicians collective Brooklyn Raga Massive since 2016, playing a key role in experimental and genre crossing projects with the collective throughout.
Mir regularly performs with his band “Mir Naqibul Islam Trio '' which focuses on different world music projects with heavy focus on tabla solo repertoire. He is also a member of “Tradition to Innovation” and “Raga Cycle” ensemble which works on original music inspired by South Asian Classical Music. Recently Mir started working on his world music percussion band “The Global Groove Project” which aims to connect different percussion and dance traditions from different parts of the globe.
Alongside his history of study and performance, Mir had a hand in training over 3000 students during 2010–2016 as a music teacher at Chhayanaut and the Nazrul Academy in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Moreover, he continues to foster the tabla studies of his private students in the east coast tri-state area.
