Dr.Murchana Adhikary Barthakur is an accomplished Sitar player from India belonging to Senia Jaipur and Lucknow-Shahjahanpur Gharana of Sitar playing. Initially Murchana, since her four years,  received intense Talim in Sitar from her mother and Guru Smt. Nilima Barthakur, an eminent Sitarist from Assam, India, who was a disciple of Ustad Ilayas Khan of Lucknow-Shahjahanpur Gharana and Pandit Debu Chaudhuri of Senia Jaipur Gharana. Murchana had the great fortune to receive rigorous lessons on Sitar from Padmabhushan Pandit Debu Chaudhuri for fifteen years. She also had the opportunity to have Talim on the intricacies of Senia Maihar Gharana from Pandit Deepak Choudhury, a foremost disciple of Bharat Ratna Pandit Ravi Shankar. 

Murchana’s performance, as a result of her intensive learning for years and delicate beauty of her thoughts and emotions, reflects a dignified, graceful, virtuosic and an aesthetic presentation, with a unique musical repertoire. Groomed in a musical ambience, Murchana was fortunate enough to have her ears accustomed to the divine fragrance of Indian Classical Music from her very childhood. Both her parents are reputed musicians. Her father Dr Dilip Ranjan Barthakur is an eminent Tabla player of Farukhabad Gharana and a Musicologist. Both her parents have innumerable contributions in the field of Indian Music. 

Murchana has completed her Master’s degree (M.A.) in Music with First class and Distinction from Rabindra Bharati University and she has done her Ph.D. in Music ( Topic: An Analytical Study on the Aesthetical contents of Sitar playing ) from Indira Kala Sangeet Viswavidyalaya, Khairagarh, India.

Dr. Murchana has worked as a Sitar Teacher at The Welham Girls' School, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, one of the most prominent residential schools of India.  She has worked as Sitar and Sarod faculty at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, Kabul, Afghanistan from 2015 to 2019 and as a Sitar Faculty at The Calcutta School of Music, Kolkata from 2011 to 2015. She also worked as a Visiting fellow at “ Dr Bhupen Hazarika Centre for Performing Arts” of  Dibrugarh University, Assam in 2013 and 2014.

 She has been awarded with the title of SURMANI from the Sur-Singar Samsad of Mumbai in 2008, the National Scholarship for Young Artistes from the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India  in 2003. She was also a  recipient of National Talent Scholarship in Music from 1993 to 2003 from the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (C.C.R.T.) under Govt. of India, New Delhi. Murchana was ranked the First position within Assam in the subject of Music in the School Final Examination of 1999. She has attended and performed in several Seminars and Symposiums organized by The Centre for Cultural Resources and Training, held in different regions of India.

 Her write-ups on Indian Music have been published in many prominent magazines. She was also  invited as a Guest Teacher and Artiste by the Ministry of Education, at “ The Afghanistan National Institute of Music” from 2012 to 2015. A Trustee of the Board of  Chaulkhowa Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, Dibrugarh, Assam, she is also an examiner at the Instrumental Department of Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata.

Dr. Murchana has been performing worldwide and teaching disciples in Guru Shishya Parampara.