Raj Mohan is a Hindustani singer, musician, composer and poet born in Surinam and living in the Netherlands since 1974. From 1985 he has been performing in the Netherlands and abroad with several bands. He is the founder and artistic leader of The Raj Mohan Ensemble, Vistar and Shai’raina.

Singer
Starting his professional career as a singer in 1983, Raj learned the ins and outs of classical Hindustani music (Khayal style) from his guru Ustad Jamaluddin Bhartiya, an adept of the illustrious Pundit Ravi Shankar, who was living in Amsterdam at the time. To deepen his knowledge about the different styles of Indian music and to get more acquainted with them, Raj Mohan travelled throughout India and worked in several places. During 1996 he worked as an associate music director in the heart of the Bombay film industry.

He especially excells in semi- and light classical North Indian vocal styles like Ghazals, Geets and Nazms in which he has been performing since 1985. These are different forms of Urdu poetry which are being popularized in the West. When he sings Bhajans (devotional songs) or Bollywood songs he sings these in that same style.

Although Raj has been educated in the fine classical Indian music, he also likes to experiment with more contemporary genres, such as Hindi Pop, hard rock, Asian Underground, Jazz related music and New Age. However, in all these experimentations his firm roots in Indian music remains clearly discernible. Some of the global artist with whom he performed are the highly renowned jazz vedette Denise Jannah, and two well-known British Asian Underground acts Najma Akhtar and JOI.

With his unimitable Indian vocal wizardry he has spiced up a track of the famous Dutch heavy metal/punk-rock group Van Katoen on their album “Doe het dan zelf” and on their live DVD “Kabaal”. He is a regular guest of this fantastic band.

Instruments
At concerts in the light classical style Raj Mohan plays the Indian harmonium and during his classical concerts he uses the Swarmandal or the Tanpura.

Composer
As a successful composer Raj Mohan always writes his own music for his bands. Between 1998 and 2001 he worked together with mrs. Mala Kishoendajal, a writer and journalist with whom he produced several theatre plays for which he also composed the music. During 2000 he composed the music and worked on a project called Sangam / Fusion. In this program the traditional music and dance of India merges with the modern music and dance of  the West in a surprisingly refreshing way.

Poet
Raj Mohan writes his poetry and songs in Sarnaami/Bhojpuri, Hindi, Sranan tongo (an Afro-Surinam tongue) and Dutch. During 2003-2004 every week one of his poems in the Sarnaami/Bhojpuri language was broadcasted by the Dutch national radio. He is regularly invited to perform as a poet.

The Raj Mohan Ensemble
To preserve the authenticity of the chosen musical styles, such as Khayal, Thumri, Ghazal, Nazm and Bhajan in the (semi-) classical and light classical tradition of North Indian music, this ensemble uses only acoustic instruments when performing

Vistar
This Cross-Over/Jazzfusion band was founded by Raj Mohan in 2001. Indian and Arabic music from the East is mixed with Jazz from the West. Two different worlds that inspire Raj Mohan to compose special music for this band. Vistar also is an open stage to work with artists like jazz singer Denise Jannah, DJ Eric Cycle and asian undergroud singer Najma Akhtar (London) and establishes musical connections all around the globe.

Shai’raina
This group combines poetry with music and was introduced to the public in 2003. Non-Indian poetry is translated to and sung by Raj Mohan in Hindi. These songs are all based on poems of great poets like Alexander Poesjkin (Russia), Edgar Cairo (Surinam), Nazim Hikmet (Turkey), Rutger Kopland and Jan Hanlo (The Netherlands). Raj sings compositions of Rabindranath Tagore in the original Bengali language. Raj also writes lyrics in his own language Sarnaami and sets them to beautiful and original compositions.