Salt Lake Cultural Association (SCA) was established in January, 1988 as a platform to promote young talents in the field of Indian Classical Music and Dance, and thereby preserve and carry forward the legendary heritage of the country which forms the life line of Indian culture. The first Music festival organised by SCA in 1988 in fond memory of Pandit Mahapurush Mishra, with the above objective was inaugurated by the then Governor of West Bengal, Prof. Sayed Nurul Hasan on 28th January, 1988, was participated by artists of National and International reputation including the Bharat Ratna late Ustad Bismillah Khan sahib along with budding talents of Music and Dance, and set the theme of the great mission envisaged. Initially, SCA organised Annual Music and Dance competitions and offered scholarship to deserving candidates, within its limited scope to build up their career. As a premier organisation of its kind in the realm of Indian classical music, SCA has so far staged twenty-five Annual Music and Dance festivals in Kolkata, as a tribute to the memory of different departed maestros highlighting streams of development of Gharanas in the traditional Guru-Sishya Parampara system. Beside these, about eight periodical programmes organised every year with above mission promoting large number of young talents. Many stars of the Music horizon of today began their musical journey from our stage platforms. So far we have promoted about 160 young talents in the field of classical Music and Dance. Some of the artists who have attained national and international reputation are mentioned below. Vocal - Rashid Hussain Khan, Sandipan Samajpati, Kaushiki Chakrabarty, Nagaraj Rao Havildar; Dance- Protima Gauri Bedi,Madhubani Chatterjee, Dona Roy, Chandana Wickramsinghe (Sri Lanka); Sitar - Purbayan Chatterjee, Shahid Parveez Khan, Sujaat Khan, Kartik Seshadri (USA); Sarod - Amaan Ali Khan, Ayan Ali Khan, Ken Zuckerman (Switzerland), Rajib Chakrabarty; Other instruments- Salil Vishwa Bhatt (Mohaveena), U. Srinivas (Mandolin), Rakesh Chaurasia(Flute), Sandeep Chatterjee (Santoor), Steve Gorn(Flute). SCA also organised special cultural programmes to pay tribute to Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda on 150th Birth Anniversary.
