Chinmaya Dunster was born in Kent, England in 1954. After attending Art College, he travelled through Afghanistan to India. There he heard a performance by the world-famous sarodist Amjad Ali Khan and instantly fell in love with the sarod (a nineteen-stringed, banjo-like Indian classical instrument.)
Three years later, while teaching art at a school in London, he became a student of Amjad Ali Khan’s leading disciple. Chinmaya dedicated the next thirteen years to the study of Indian classical music on the sarod, both in London and at the Osho Commune in Pune, India.
Since 1990 Chinmaya has released 13 CDs on New Earth Records and Malimba Records. In 2002 Sir Paul McCartney invited him to perform at his wedding in Ireland.
Chinmaya is currently working on a new CD for New Earth Records from his home in Goa, India, based mainly on the sarod. It promises to become a meditative musical journey into the experience of living in harmony with nature.
Latest News
Chinmaya Dunster delivers in 10 days a celtic score for a re-make of a Tamil movie: Neela Thamara. Film music director Vidyasgar, wanted a Malayalam song done in traditional Celtic style! Read more on the blog...
Latest News
Land of the Buddhas, Chinmaya’s long awaited ‘Best of’ CD, will be released in August 2009 by New Earth Records.
A new video has been added to ‘Smiles From Off The Road’: Travels with a Hat (part 3). More...
A second part to ‘Smiles from the Forest’: Singing with the Paniyas has just been released. More...
Filmmakers for Conservation – a global community who work in the global film and television industry with the mission of "Using the power of film and media to help conserve our natural world" – has recently included Chinmaya Dunster on their website with an interview by Paul Mahoney, given on May 25, 2009. Read the interview...
Chinmaya’s film ‘Smiles from off the road in India’ has been selected for the CMS International Children’s Film Festival which was in Lucknow, India, from 7-13 April 2009. Watch the video...