Songs of the Bengali Bauls with Ananda Gopal Das Baul

We invite you to immerse yourself in the melodies of the Bengali Bauls—woven with mysticism and folklore—alongside Ananda Gopal Das Baul. Master Ananda is a performer recognized in both India and the West who, for nearly 40 years, has traveled across every continent with the traditional music of the Bauls of West Bengal (India).

A Baul is a “singing philosopher” whose sacred texts, prayers, and philosophical reflections are expressed through song. It is precisely because of their unique spiritual content that Baul songs have even been included on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The emotional essence of the Bauls lies in the philosopher’s “conversation with the heart” (Bengali: Monoshikkha), with the teacher, and in a deep longing for God. Just as dance is in the Sufi tradition, so too is song for the Bauls a medium between heaven and earth, through which one enters a spiritual trance.

The foundation of Baul music is improvisation; no musical session has a predetermined set list and depends solely on the bhava—the inner state, mood, and atmosphere—that comes over the performers.

The guest from India will be accompanied by Kristė Elena Šlajė (vocals, traditional instruments), who lives in India, and Adomas Šimkūnas (bansuri flute).

Ananda Gopal Das Baul is an extraordinary master of his genre, a Baul musician who embodies not only an authentic musical lineage but also the living folk tradition of West Bengal. In his concerts, the performer showcases the subtle vocal capabilities of the tenor and his mastery of traditional instruments (karatals, khamakhu, and others), delving into the nuances of the Bengal region’s songs: the colorful music of the Birbhum Bauls and the melodies of the Bangladeshi fakirs, the folk songs of North Bengal, the rhythmic jhumur style, and the wistful bhatiyali songs of the riverbanks. Anando Gopal Das Baulo’s career spans several decades of vibrant concerts; he has toured numerous European countries, performed at festivals across various continents, and was particularly beloved in France.

Kristė Elena Šlajė is an alumna of the Asian Studies program at Vilnius University; she developed an interest in the musical traditions of South Asia while studying Indology. Today she spends more time in India than in Lithuania, where she is learning the subtleties of Baul music in the traditional manner from her teacher Anando Gopal Das Baul and while traveling throughout the region. In 2025–2026, as part of the ICCR Cultural Fellowship Program, she studied the musical legacy of Rabindranath Tagore at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, West Bengal (India).

Adomas Šimkūnas performs in the “Dhrupad” style of North Indian classical music. In 2011, he began studying the bansuri flute with master Jean-Christophe Bonnafous (France/India). He has participated numerous times in master classes with the world-renowned bansuri flute legend Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia (India). In 2016, he became interested in “Dhrupad,” the oldest vocal genre of North Indian classical music, and began studying the vocals and bansuri flute of this genre, which he continues to this day, following the Guru–shishya oral tradition with Professor Dr. Pandit Ritwik Sanyal, the world’s most renowned vocal master and composer of the Dhrupad tradition, Dr. Pandit Ritwik Sanyal. In this concert, he will accompany the Bengali Baul songs on the bansuri flute.