Biography

Composer, arranger and improviser; consummate soloist and generous collaborator; custodian of tradition and restless innovator, multi-award winning sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun is an anomaly indeed. Unconstrained by genre, the Leeds-born virtuoso’s extraordinary skill and creativity are reshaping the musical landscape for his peers, and for generations to come. 

Amid artist residencies and fellowships, an international concert schedule, royal command performances and the well-deserved laurels of recent years, Jasdeep’s lifelong training in gayaki ang – a lyrical approach to the sitar that mimics the human voice – has remained his anchor and his passion. “In our tradition, you're always a student”, he explains. “My teacher, Ustad Dharambir Singh MBE, shows me how big the music is, and how much we still have to explore.”  

Following his triumphant sitar concerto Arya, premiered with the Orchestra of Opera North in 2020, Jasdeep’s debut album was released in 2022 on Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records. Recorded with the legendary Nitin Sawhney and the support of a Sky Academy Scholarship, Anomaly ranges from high-wire sitar solos to lush, string-laden cinematic excursions. It places the sitar in exhilarating contemporary settings, yet its roots remain in the melodic and rhythmic frameworks of Indian classical music.   

As Artist in Residence at Opera North in 2022, Jasdeep continued in pursuit of his vision to combine the scale of orchestral music with the spontaneity of Indian classical improvisation. The brilliance – and the integrity – of the tapestry of Indian and European music that he wove as composer and co-music director on a new staging of Monteverdi’s opera Orpheus thrilled audiences and critics alike. His groundbreaking work was recognised with awards including Outstanding Achievement in Opera at both the Critics’ Circle and the UK Theatre Awards, and Best Stage Production at the Asian Media Awards. He closed an unforgettable 2023 by taking home the Asian Achievers’ Art and Culture Award, and Best Newcomer at the Songlines Awards.  Perhaps most significantly, Jasdeep received the Royal Philharmonic Society’s 2024 Award for Best Instrumentalist, the first sitar player, and the first British Asian musician, to be so recognised.  

On the operatic stage, in the studio and on the concert platform in venues from Westminster Abbey to the Ampitheatre in Doha, Jasdeep is forging powerful new musical forms. “It’s really not a matter of different worlds meeting”, he reflects. “It’s just me: as much as I’m immersed in Indian classical music, I’m a product of this country; I’m a British composer”. Whether completing his sitar concerto during a residency at Benjamin Britten’s home in Aldeburgh, working simultaneously in raag and western counterpoint in the Orpheus rehearsal room, or trading quicksilver improvisations in the moment with an Indian classical percussionist, his approach to music-making is always instinctive, organic, unprejudiced.  

  • "...one the most imaginative musicians in the land"

    ★★★★★ The Independent

  • “Sheer boldness of vision… an outstanding cross-cultural success.”

    ★★★★★ The Stage

  • “Showcases the classical music of the subcontinent but also mixes, melds and modernises it.”

    ★★★★ Financial Times

  • “I would have liked to hear it all over again.”

    ★★★★★ The Observer

  • ‘…this is a man on an upward trajectory with a visionary talent and an extraordinary instrument in his hands’

    ★★★★ North West End UK

  • "One of our greatest musicians in the country"

    Nitin Sawhney as quoted in the Financial Times

Training

Jasdeep began his training in vocal music with Smt. Gunwant Kaur whilst studying at Primary School in Leeds. He soon began classes at the local community centre under the guidance of the late Jayasree Sen Gupta, before learning under Dr Vijay Rajput as part of the Yorkshire Young Musicians scheme at the Leeds College of Music. Jasdeep was also a regular attendee of the South Asian Arts-uk annual Summer Schools and had the opportunity to train with the renowned vocalists Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty and Kaushiki Chakrabarty. 

Jasdeep began the study of sitar under Ustad Dharambir Singh MBE from the relatively late age of fifteen. Taken initially as a secondary subject, Jasdeep soon made the decision to focus primarily on sitar with Ustad Dharambir Singh as his sole teacher and mentor. 

​Around this time, Jasdeep auditioned to join Samyo (the national South Asian youth orchestra) and became its first ever vocalist. Jasdeep remained a member of Samyo (and later Tarang, the national south asian ensemble) for over a decade and as a result developed a keen interest in, and understanding of, Carnatic music. 

With the encouragement of Ustad Dharambir ji, Jasdeep has trained intensively in India taking the opportunity to study with the maestro Ustad Shujaat Khan (in the winter of 2010), and studying as an International Scholar at the prestigious Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata under the guidance of Pandit Partho Chatterjee and Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty in early 2016.