Chinmaya Dunster

Biography

Born in 1954 in Kent, England, Dunster (né Stephen Dunster) attended Art college in Canterbury and pursued an independent study of classical guitar and composition throughout his adolescence and early twenties.

After finishing his formal education in the late seventies, Dunster left Europe and travelled through Afghanistan into northern India, where he became acquainted with classical Indian music and instrumentation. During spring break of his last year of art school in 1979, he flew off to Dehli to meet with his future wife, Diana. They travelled to the Himalayas. In the north Indian city of New Delhi, he attended an all-night performance of the sarod master, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and subsequently spent the next thirteen years engaged in the study of the sarod both in London and India.

Once he finished his Art college training, he spent a year in Canada. Before returning to England he travelled through the East, first to Japan, then to Thailand and Sri Lanka.

In 1982 he became a disciple of Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh).

As Hindustani musical tradition dictates that knowledge of technique and tradition is generally handed down from father to son, Dunster was initially challenged to find a teacher. In 1983 in London he became a disciple of Ustad Gurdev Singh (leading disciple of Ustad Amjad ali Khan). After moving to Pune, India, in 1989, he studied for a further six years with Pandit Shekhar Borkar, a mainly self-taught sarod master.

In 1990, following an intense year of music making at the Osho Resort in Pune, Dunster founded the east-west fusion band with Prem Joshua, Terra Incognita and released two albums under that name through New Earth Records. After several solo projects, Dunster then founded the Celtic Ragas Band, whose self-titled 2001 release attracted the favour of former Beatles member Sir Paul McCartney, who then invited Dunster to perform at his 2002 wedding to Heather Mills in Ireland.

The following year he and the Celtic Ragas Band performed a CONCERT FOR INDIA'S ENVIRONMENT at BVIEER, Pune, released as the live CD 'Fragrance of the East' on New Earth Records. The video of this concert, blended with interviews with environmentalists, Indian school children reading their own poems on nature and stunning footage of the Indian wilderness, has been shown at numerous international film festivals, and aims to spread awareness of the state of India’s environment: www.chinmaya-dunster.com/concert-environment-2.php

In February 2010, Chinmaya Dunster formed the Green Ragas Band, playing at British Council, New Delhi (India) during the TERI YUVA Meet for environmental awareness, and the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Video of these concerts blended with information about climate change, threats to biodiversity and the difficulties faced by the rural poor in India found here: www.chinmaya-dunster.com/concert-environment-2.php

Chinmaya Dunster currently resides in Auckland (New Zealand) with his partner Naveena Goffer and their daughter Koyal Goffer-Dunster. He is currently creating songs based on expanded consciousness, such as his singles releases 'At the Edge', and 'Dance Your Way to God'; expanding opportunities for talented local musicians of Auckland to perform at the ‘Auckland Mehfil’ (currently 2017 in its fourteenth edition); and helping develop music and organic gardening at Titirangi Rudolf Steiner School, where Koyal is a student. He does not use a smartphone.

Discography