Roopa Panesar is considered one of the finest sitar players to emerge on the Indian classical music scene from the UK. Embracing Indian classical music as well as jazz and western classical, Roopa leaves audiences captivated and peers filled with respect .
Roopa was born in London and raised in Leicester, giving her the opportunity to learn sitar from an early age and by seven years old she was learning from Ustad Dharambir Singh MBE, a disciple of the late Ustad Vilayat Khan. She proudly joins the modest number of Indian women worldwide who have launched their careers as full-time touring and teaching sitar players.
Roopa has collaborated with Mercury Prize winner Talvin Singh, and performed at high-profile international concerts including London’s prestigious Darbar Festival of Indian classical music and dance, WOMAD, the Chicago World Music Festival and with the Budapest Orchestra in Brussels, Amsterdam and Budapest.
“One of the most important musicians to have emerged in the British Asian diaspora over the past few years. She expresses a profound sense of calmness laced with an inexplicable exhilaration.”
(★★★★ Songlines )
In 2023, Roopa released her most recent album, ATMA (The Soul), via Asian Arts Agency’s label. ATMA was recorded at Real World Studios with a panoply of artists from the Indian classical and jazz genres and was launched to a full house at London’s iconic Barbican Centre. It has subsequently toured across the UK. The album is designed to uplift during times of challenge, and was written by Roopa after a time of great personal, and global, turmoil.
“AR Rahman‘s suite from the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack is effectively a concerto for sitar and orchestra, the former played with staggering dexterity by Roopa Panesar. ”
(★ ★ ★ ★ Guardian)
Her most recent performances include the Oslo Mela in Norway, Southbank Centre’s South Asian Sounds festival, a Diwali celebration at Leicester Cathedral, a showcase in New York at the renowned APAP, the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, and the World Yoga Festival.
For worldwide bookings and programming, please email Jaswinder at Asian Arts Agency: hello@asianartsagency.co.uk
Listen to Roopa on Spotify here and check out a few videos below: