Kaushiki Chakraborty is an Indian classical vocalist and the daughter of Ajoy Chakraborty. She is from a well known musical family of Calcutta. She belongs to the Patiala gharana. Groomed at Sangeet Research Academy where her father was teacher, her singing repertoire covers Khyals and Thumris, the latter being 'semi-classical' or 'light classical' styles. She has been recipient of many national and international awards such as the BBC award in 2005, and has performed with elan at many national and international festivals and conferences. She has held performances with her husband Parthasarathi Desikan in the United States.
Chakraborty was born in 1980 in Kolkata, India. She is the daughter of Chandana Chakraborty and the renowned Indian classical singer Ajoy Chakraborty. From the age of two she exhibited a keen interest in music. She had accompanied her father in his world tours of music performances since the late 1980s and had sung her first song, a tarana, at age 7, at the Calcutta Rowing Club. At age ten, she started learning Indian classical music at the academy of Jnan Prakash Ghosh who was also her father's guru, later joined ITC Sangeet Research Academy from where she graduated in 2004, and was also groomed by her father. Vijay Kichlu, director of the academy fine tuned her skill in rendering Khyal. She also trained under her father at his Shrutinandan school of music in Kolkata. She has not only specialized in rendering of Khyals and Thumri but she has also learned South Indian Classical music from Balamurali Krishna from 2002. She completed her schooling at Patha Bhavan school, Kolkata. In 2002, she graduated from the Jogamaya Devi College, an affiliated undergraduate women's college of the University of Calcutta, in Kolkata with a first class degree in philosophy. She did her masters in philosophy from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, with top honours.
