Dr. Tathagata (Raja) Banga (tbanga@hotmail.com) is the Houston Durga Bari Kala Bhavan faculty member of Tabla class. While his professional career is in the petroleum industry (Phd in Geology) as one of the ace discoverers of Deepwater Gulf of Mexico exploration for the supermajor Royal Dutch Shell, Raja has also been a very well-known tabla player in the Houston music arena for the last 20+ years. He is the Executive Director of Prana, a private non-profit foundation on promoting regenerative lifestyle, and has maintained a very successful dual career in the realm of earth science, as well as in the world of music.
Raja’s music school at Katy highlights world percussion and was covered by Houston Chronicle in 2009 for this unique contribution to the greater Houston community. He has performed with well-known musicians in India and the US, including Ustad Ashish Khan, Pandit Keshav Ginde, Dr. Paul Katz, Amit Kumar, Abbos Kosimov, Rekha Surya, Dhananjay Kaul.
Raja served as the President of the Tagore Society of Houston (TSH) between 2008 and 2011 and pioneered numerous collaborative projects with esteemed local organizations, such as University of Houston, Asia Society, Museum of Fine Arts, India Culture Center, Bangladesh Association of Houston. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of TSH and designs various domestic and international cultural events for TSH.
Raja teaches various genres of drums at Durga Bari Kala Bhavan & Arya Samaj of Houston. He trains the young performers of Tagore Society Youth Orchestra (https://youtu.be/e5znwHuj7ZA). He has also been part of an experimental fusion band called Essence of Prana.
