He belongs to Sitar’s first family, the ‘Etawah Gharana’ (also known as the Imdadkhani Gharana) which has gifted Hindustani Classical Music such great maestros as Ustad Imdad Khan, Ustad Enayat Khan, Ustad Wahid Khan, Ustad Vilayat Khan and Ustad Imrat Khan.He was initiated into music at the age of 6 by Sri Bimal Chatterjee of ‘Etawah Gharana’. He gave his first public performance at the age of 8 in Kolkota, and he started performing at the All India Radio, Kolkata from the age of 9.

In 2000, Subhranil was accepted as a disciple by the great Sitar maestro Padma-Shri Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan and with this began a new chapter in Subhranil’s musical life. Within a few years he has established himself as one of the foremost disciples of Ustadji and one of the young torchbearers of his Gharana.

Subhranil acquired his Masters degree in Music from the Rabindra Bharati University being the first-class first gold medalist of his year. For quite a few years he was associated with the Archive of North Indian Classical Music (Jadavpur University, Kolkata) as an archivist and has been appointed as an Examiner as well as Adjudicator with the Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata. He has presented ‘lecture-demonstrations on Sitar’, the ‘Etawah Gharana’ and ‘Ustad Amir Khan’ at several prestigious Institutions.

Subhranil Sarkar has performed in numerous concerts in India, Europe and U.S.A.

One of the biggest highlights of Subhranil’s musical journey is to have accompanied the great Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan on the sitar in concerts.