Born and bred in the UK, Gurdain Rayatt is one of the finest young tabla players in the country today. His rigorous training from his father and grandfather and also the late Pandit Shankar Ghosh has resulted in a varied and rich lineage of repertoire and style from the Punjab, Benares and Farukhabad gharanas. He studied both English with Film and Music with Composition at King’s College London and University of West London, gaining two Bachelor Degrees.

Gurdain began his tutelage from his father Harkirat Rayatt at the age of 3 with guidance from his father’s guru and grandfather Bhai Gurmit Singh Virdee. Bhai Gurmit Singh Virdee had learned the Punjab style of tabla playing from Ustad Bahadur Singh (a disciple of Mian Fakir Baksh who was a gurubhai of Mian Qader Baksh, the guru of Ustad Alla Rakha) and the Benares style of tabla playing from Pandit Samta Prasad.

Gurdain quickly became inspired by performing maestros of the time including Pandit Anindo Chatterjee, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pandit Kumar Bose and Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri. Through his father’s efforts in promoting high quality tabla performances, Gurdain was fortunate to learn from and play for these maestros at close quarters. He has had interactions and taleem from other great tabla players and teachers including Pandit Suresh Talwalkar, Pandit Yogesh Samsi, Pandit Subhankar Banerjee, Satyajit Talwalkar and Pandit Nayan Ghosh.

His main professional development came from his extensive taleem with the late maestro Pandit Shankar Ghosh and his son, Bickram Ghosh who both tirelessly dedicated their time to nurturing Gurdain’s talent. After a year-long stay in Kolkata, India to strictly develop his playing and technique, Gurdain spent time with professional musicians such as Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya, Pandit Kushal Das, Pandit Debjyoti Bose, Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya, Niladri Kumar and has been performing with a wide range of musicians and dancers ever since.