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About us:

Sanjib Mondol founded the Kolkata Youth Orchestra (KYO) in 2011, with an aim to promote young talents who learn music but do not always get the right opportunity and platform to perform in public. The orchestra promotes young talents and student musicians who do not always get an opportunity to perform in front of an appreciative audience. From the time of its inception, the orchestra has been performing at various venues in Kolkata. Over the years, KYO’s growth, musical maturity, concert repertoire, and its professional quality of performance has made it possible to revive the former symphony orchestra, that existed in the 70’s.

Kolkata Symphony Orchestra:

Kolkata Symphony Orchestra (KSO) was reborn in April 2018. KSO aims to preserve, promote and improvise the rich tradition of western classical music through energetic and enriching performances. The orchestra aspires to provide artistic leadership, reach new performance standards and produce an ambitious and wide-ranging program, both on and off the concert platform. It provides a development platform for young musicians so that they become self-sufficient, when they choose music as a career. Starting April 2018, both KSO and KYO will operate, with the KYO being a performance platform for young musicians, inducting and developing fresh talents for the Kolkata Symphony Orchestra.

Kolkata Youth Orchestra:

The orchestra members are mostly students and ex-students of Roger Music School and the Behala Oxford Mission. In the last few years, KYO has had the opportunity to work with professional musicians from across the world and in India as well. KYO has strengthened its association with Keys of Change, a UK-based organization that reaches out to people living in difficult conditions, using music as a means to communicate.

KYO has also collaborated with young students of Woodstock School, Mussoorie. Along with some pupils of Behala Oxford Mission and a few KYO musicians, a joint performance with the Woodstock School Orchestra was held at the Woodstock School, in early 2015. Few senior musicians of KYO are also working with the Fukushima Youth Sinfonietta for a concert organized by Keys of Change, in Tokyo and Fukushima in Aug 2015.

Sanjib is the Conductor and Managing Trustee

Sanjib Mondol

Founder, Conductor, Managing Trustee

Sanjib was born in 1974, at a village called Fulbari in the suburbs of Kolkata. He grew up there and moved to Oxford Mission, Behala for schooling. He got started on the violin at age 10, under the guidance of Late Father Theodore Mathieson, and was later introduced to the Oxford Mission Orchestra.

At age 16, Sanjib was playing in quartets and quintets at The Oberoi Grand. He moved to England in 1994, mostly to perform in quartets. He received a scholarship for the Dartington International Summer School several times for studying the violin, viola and chamber music. He received his Diploma in Violin from Trinity College of Music, London. Sanjib started teaching at the Oxford Mission in 1996, and it was also the beginning of his conducting career. In 1997 Sanjib founded Roger Music School.

Sanjib has visited various countries and has been associated with multiple orchestras, musicians and conductors. His orchestral experience, mostly as a guest violinist, includes the Sydney International Fellowship Orchestra, Dartington International Orchestra, McLean Symphony Orchestra USA, Delhi, Bangalore and Bombay Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of India, and many more. He is associated with The Neemrana Music Foundation, primarily performing opera music. He was also a member of the India-Sri Lanka Goodwill Orchestra which performed in Tokyo, as a part of Asia Orchestra Week 2007. Sanjib has worked with the Fukushima Youth Sinfonietta as a violinist and conductor for concerts in Fukushima and Tokyo Opera City, Japan.

He got his conducting lessons from various conductors, including Mr. Richard Gill, the conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Sanjib currently serves as the Head of Music at the Oxford Mission, Behala, teaches at the Calcutta School of Music and is the resident conductor of Calcutta Chamber Orchestra.

In 2011, Sanjib founded the KYO and has conducted a few KYO performances in Kolkata, along with musicians from abroad. KYO has had the opportunity to perform with Panos Karan, Founder of Keys Of Change, a UK-based charity that brings music to the lesser privileged communities. Sanjib founded KYO in 2011. He e is the Conductor and Managing Trustee.

Ranjan Biswas

Manager & Trustee

Ranjan grew up in a musical environment listening to multiple genres of music. He started learning the violin from his school days and completed his grades from the Trinity College of Music. He played for the Calcutta Symphony Orchestra and Youth Orchestras in the late 70s.

Ranjan plays several other instruments, and with his varied exposure, he developed a keen interest in sound and harmony at a young age. He has arranged and composed music for orchestra, violin-piano duets, choral music, background scores for stage and visuals. As a volunteer for Keys of Change, Ranjan has played with the Fukushima Youth Sinfonietta in Fukushima and Tokyo.

Ranjan has been involved with KYO from its very inception in 2011. He plays the violin and viola for the orchestra, as needed. Apart from that, he leads and manages several functions of the orchestra, starting from planning concerts, public relations, collaborative initiatives with local and foreign musicians. He has helped conceptualize that playing music for the lesser fortunate Kolkatan community can actually be implemented to create a positive change. Apart from supporting music education and development in a few organizations, KSO takes initiative to promote, share and use music as a means of providing a life-changing experience for people living in difficult conditions.

The Kolkata Youth Orchestra is a registered Trust, and Ranjan is a Trustee of KYO. He holds a Bachelors degree in Engineering from BITS Pilani, and works in a senior management position with an MNC.