Founder and Artistic Director Ritesh Das has been teaching tabla in Canada since 1987. Ritesh Das teaches all intermediate and advanced classes and composes music for the Toronto Tabla Ensemble. Read his full bio here.
Razak Pirani has been a tabla student of maestro Ritesh Das since he was 13 and joined TTE in 2011 With the Ensemble and independently, he has performed at venues across Toronto as well as in the USA and France. Razak is passionate about passing the art on to the next generation in Canada. He teaches tabla, leads training programs for the Toronto Tabla Youth Ensemble, and received an Independent Music Award for co-composing ‘Faceoff’ with his fellow students.
Shamir Panchal is a student of maestro Ritesh Das and a member of the TTE since 2014. In addition to training and performing with the ensemble, he is involved in training the Toronto Tabla Youth Ensemble. Trained as an architect, Shamir also contributes his time to graphic design projects for the TTE including the artwork for the TTE’s for the album Bhumika. Shamir received an Independent Music Award for ‘Faceoff’ which he co-composed with Razak Pirani and Nevathan Vela.
Melissa Das-Arp has been studying tabla since 2011 and is the film director of Toronto Tabla Ensemble, creating multiple award winning music videos and documentaries. Melissa teaches beginning tabla classes for adults.
Marco Gualtieri started studying tabla in 2013 and is a math professor at University of Toronto. Marco hosts weekly ‘Tabla Practice’ sessions where he incorporates math and meditation into tabla practice for all levels.
Jishnu Parekh started studying tabla in 2014 and has recently graduated from the Toronto Tabla Youth Ensemble. In 2022 he started performing as part of the Toronto Tabla Ensemble along with guest artists such as Nagata Shachu, George Koller and Bif Naked. Jishnu helps train junior members of the Youth Ensemble and teaches beginning and intermediate tabla classes.