Tabla beats resonate in Rome migrant orchestra

Far away from the shores of Bengal, the tabla beats of Sanjay Kansa Banik in the famous Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio regale audience in Italy.
Banik, a native of West Bengal, is a part of a multi-ethnic orchestra that comprise hugely disparate people who pool their talent to create something exciting and new.
The Orchestra of Piazza Vittorio started in the Esquilino neighbourhood of Rome in 2002, a colourful area dominated by immigrants and a hub for various cultures, sounds and musicians from all corners of the world.
This area inspired musician Mario Tronco to reunite some of the extraordinary performers, each one unique in origin, instrument and musical experience, to form an orchestra, that plays and reinvents music from all over the world with an energy that audiences take away with them after each concert.

"Our director Mario Tronco has brought together various musicians and produced music from different corners of the globe to create a unique sound of the area (Vittorio square) where the orchestra was formed," he said.
The group has musicians from countries, including Tunisia, Cuba, Senegal, Hungary and Ecuador who play a range of instruments from viola to cello to congas.

"All the songs we perform in orchestra are original form of folk, classic, pop or jazz tradition of the country where the musician is coming from. What we all musicians try to do is arrange the song to give a new colour and a particular sound," Banik told PTI.

Born in Habra in West Bengal, Banik moved to Rome in 2006 to try his luck in the music industry. He joined the orchestra the following year.
Talking about the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe and
the striking example Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio provides, Banik said healthy immigration has always been fruitful and it is needed for a country in order to know the other tradition and culture and to go deeper into that.
About the influence of Indian musicians on his work, Banik said, "There are so many musicians who are his favourite. My all time favourites in the tabla field are Pt Kishan Maharaj and Pandit Samtaprasad, Late Ustad Vilayat Khan and Ustad Bismillah Khan, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Md Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar".

Now he is working on an album titled 'OM NAMAHA'.
"Apart from teaching regularly I am working now with a new show called 'around the world in 80 minutes' by Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio," he said.