ज्ञान प्रकाश घोष

Pandit Gyan Prakash Ghosh (also transliterated Jnan Prakash Ghosh; 8 May 1909 - 18 February 1997) was a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and musicologist from Kolkata, born into a musically distinguished family -- his grandfather Dwarkanath Ghosh founded the Dwarkin harmonium manufacturing company in 1875. A specialist in tabla and harmonium from the Farukhabad gharana of Hindustani classical music, Ghosh built a career spanning classical performance, film scoring, and broadcasting.

He composed light music in both Bengali and Hindi and scored several Bengali films, including Jadubhatta, Andhare Alo, and Rajlakshmi o Srikanta (1958), the last of which -- based on a Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay novel -- saw him serve as music director, lyricist, and playback singer. He also spent 15 years at All India Radio as a music producer, shaping its classical, light, orchestral, and choral music output, and later scored the Academy Award-nominated animated short Bead Game. Among his notable students were tabla players Shankar Ghosh, Anindo Chatterjee, and Nikhil Ghosh, and vocalists Ajoy Chakrabarty and Suman Ghosh.

His honors include the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship (1974) and the Padma Bhushan (1984).