2018

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MARCH 30, 2018

Zakir Hussain and Rakesh Chaurasia

Zakir Hussain is today appreciated both in the field of percussion and in the music world at large as an international phenomenon and one of the greatest musicians of our time. A classical tabla virtuoso of the highest order, his consistently brilliant and exciting performances have established him as a national treasure in his own country, India, and as one of India’s reigning cultural ambassadors. Along with his legendary father and teacher, Ustad Allarakha, he has elevated the status of his instrument both in India and around the world. His playing is marked by uncanny intuition and masterful improvisational dexterity, founded in formidable knowledge and study.

Widely considered a chief architect of the contemporary world music movement, Zakir's contribution to world music has been unique, with many historic collaborations, including Shakti, which he founded with John McLaughlin and L. Shankar, Remember Shakti, the Diga Rhythm Band, Making Music, Planet Drum with Mickey Hart, Tabla Beat Science, Sangam with Charles Lloyd and Eric Harland, and recordings and performances with artists as diverse as George Harrison, YoYo Ma, Joe Henderson, Van Morrison, Airto Moreira, Pharoah Sanders, Billy Cobham, Mark Morris, Rennie Harris, and the Kodo drummers. His music and extraordinary contribution to the music world were honored in April, 2009, with four widely-heralded and sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall’s Artist Perspective series.

The recipient of countless honors, Zakir has received the titles of Padma Bhushan, in 2002, and Padma Shri, in 1988, becoming the youngest percussionist to be awarded these, given to civilians of merit, by the Indian government. In 1990, he was awarded the Indo-American Award in recognition for his outstanding cultural contribution to USA-India relations. In April 1991, he was presented with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award by the President of India, making him one of the youngest musicians to receive this recognition from India's governing cultural institute. In 2007, readers' polls from both Modern Drummer and Drum! magazines named him Best World Music and Best Worldbeat Drummer respectively. On February 8, 2009, Zakir received a Grammy in the Best Contemporary World Music category for Global Drum Project, his group with Mickey Hart, Giovanni Hidalgo and Sikiru Adepoju. Also, in 2009, Zakir was named an Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters by France’s Ministry of Culture and Communication for his extraordinary artistic and cultural contribution. The Downbeat Critics’ Poll named him Best Percussionist in 2012.

A child prodigy, Zakir was touring by the age of twelve. He came to the United States in 1970, performing his first USA concert at the Fillmore East in New York City with Pandit Ravi Shankar, embarking on an illustrious international career. A prolific composer and recording artist, Zakir has received widespread recognition for his many ensembles and collaborations. In 1987, his first solo release, Making Music, was acclaimed as “one of the most inspired East-West fusion albums ever recorded.” In 1992, Planet Drum, an album co-created and produced by Zakir and Mickey Hart, became the first recording to win a Grammy in the Best World Music category, the Downbeat Critics’ Poll for Best World Beat Album and the NARM Indie Best Seller Award for World Music Recording.

Zakir received the distinct honor of co-composing the opening music for the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, 1996. He was commissioned to compose music for Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet (for which he received an Isadora Duncan Award), and to compose an original work for the San Francisco Jazz Festival, both in 1998. He has received numerous grants, including participation in the Meet the Composer programs funded by the Pew Memorial Trust. In 2000, Zakir worked again with choreographer Alonzo King, this time composing music for The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. In 2002, his commissioned work for choreographer Mark Morris’ “Kolam” premiered as part of YoYo Ma’s “Silk Road Project” with YoYo Ma and Zakir performing Zakir’s composition live for the performance. In September 2006, Triple Concerto for Banjo, Bass and Tabla, a piece co-composed by Zakir, Edgar Meyer and Bela Fleck, was performed by them with the Nashville Symphony at the gala opening of the Schermerhorn Symphony Hall in Nashville. In January, 2009, it was re-created with the Detroit Symphony, again under the baton of Leonard Slatkin. This performance and new original works composed by Zakir, Edgar and Bela, was released as the Grammy-nominated The Melody of Rhythm in 2009. Zakir’s second concerto, Concerto for Four Soloists, a special commission for the National Symphony Orchestra, was performed at Kennedy Center in March, 2011, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach. His third concerto, the first-ever tabla concerto, will be premiered in September, 2015, by the Symphony Orchestra of India, was premiered in Europe in January 2016 and will premiere in the United States in April, 2017, by the National Symphony Orchestra.

Zakir reunited with Alonzo King in 2007, for Lines Ballet’s 25th anniversary celebration, creating acclaimed music for King’s Rasa, and was commissioned to score King’s Scheherazade which premiered in Monte Carlo in December 2009, garnering another Isadora Duncan Award. In 2007, the government of India chose Zakir to compose an anthem to celebrate India’s 60th year of independence. The song, “Jai Hind”, has been recorded by an array of India’s finest classical vocalists and pop singers.

Zakir has scored for many films, including Merchant-Ivory’s Heat and Dust (in which he also co-starred), In Custody and Mystic Masseur, Bertolucci’s Little Buddha, Vanaprastham (The Last Dance), Saaz, Everybody Says I’m Fine, and Mr. And Mrs. Iyer.

Zakir is the recipient of the 1999 National Heritage Fellowship, the United States' most prestigious honor for a master in the traditional arts, presented by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at the United States Senate on September 28, 1999. In 2005, he was named an Old Dominion Fellow by the Humanities Council at Princeton University, where he resided for the 2005-2006 autumn semester as full professor in the music department, teaching a survey course in Indian classical music and dance. In the spring of 2007, this course was taught again by Zakir, this time at Stanford University. Zakir’s yearly tabla workshop in Marin County, conducted for the past twenty years, draws hundreds of serious students and performers. In the spring of 2015, he was in residence at UC Berkeley as Regents Lecturer.

In 1992, Zakir founded Moment! Records which features original collaborations in the field of contemporary world music and live concert performances by great masters of the classical music of India. The label presents live recordings of great masters of the classical music of both North and South India, world music and a Masters of Percussion series. Moment Records’ 2006 release, Golden Strings of the Sarode with Aashish Khan and Zakir Hussain, was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Traditional World Music category for that year. Moment Records’ recent DVD release, Zakir Hussain: The SF Jazz Sessions, featuring a host of Zakir’s world-class collaborators, has been critically acclaimed.

In 2015, he was voted “Best Percussionist” by the Downbeat Critics’ Poll and by Modern Drummer’s Readers’ Poll.

On January 15, 2018,, HarperCollins India released Zakir’s long-awaited oral memoir, (available on Amazon), A Life in Music, by Nasreen Munni Kabir, the distinguished British television producer, director, and author.  The Life is the result of two years of intensive interviews.    

Rakesh Chaurasia, the nephew and child prodigy of flute maestro Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, has a famous name to live up to. Amongst the promising musicians of the second generation, Rakesh has carved a niche for himself as an accomplished flautist. Infusing his personal style with the tradition of his renowned uncle, he has evolved an approach which maintains the purity of the flute while also managing to capture the attention of young listeners. The most accomplished of his uncle’s disciples, he promises to carry the Chaurasia legacy to new heights.

Rakesh’s flute has matched note and rhythm with wind instruments of other cultures as well as having performed ‘jugalbandi with Carnatic and world famous instrumentalists . Rakesh’s forte is in blending his flute without really losing its identity in mixed instruments’ concerts. Rakesh has already globe-trotted many times over, enthralling audiences at classical and non-classical concerts .He is also an accomplished studio musician, having recorded with most of the leading stalwarts of the Indian film industry.

Rakesh has been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades. He received the Indian Music Academy Award, presented by the Honourable President Of India, Dr..A.P.J Abdul Kalam in 2007, the Aditya Birla Kalakiran Puraskar in 2008, the Guru Shishya Award in 2011, IWAP-Pandit Jasraj Sangeet Ratna Award in 2013 and the Pannalal Ghosh Puraskar 2013.

Despite his experimental work, Rakesh has never deviated from his main goal of becoming a full-fledged classical musician. He has regularly appeared in prominent festivals such as the WOMAD festival in Athens, Womad Earthstation in Europe, and the ‘Festivals of India’ in Russia, Japan, the US, and Europe, His growing maturity and status has brought him invitations to perform solo at major events within India and abroad, including the Festival of Saint-Denis in Paris and the Leicester International Music Festival in England. Most notably, Rakesh was invited to conclude the twenty-four hour live BBC Radio broadcast celebrating Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee, reaching audiences worldwide.

Recently Rakesh toured as a duo for classical concerts as well as for The Masters of Percussion with legendary tabla virtuoso Ustad Zakir Hussain at prestigious venues across the globe. Rakesh has also performed with some international names such as Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Joshua Redman.

Rakesh's most recent venture is his fusion band Rakesh and Friends(RAF) which creates music that appeals to the young without sacrificing the essence of classical music.

Modest Rakesh is the first to admit that he has a lot to learn, not just from his legendary uncle and maestro, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, but his peers as well. He is destined to carve a niche for himself in the realm of Indian Classical Music with the simple yet extremely challenging instrument, the Bansuri. 

MAY 5, 2018

Youth Series:

An Evening with Kruthi Bhat accompanied by Sruthi Sarathy and Athrey Nadhan

South Asian Performing Arts Foundation will be kick starting our Youth Series this year with incredibly talented Kruthi Bhat. Her melodious voice has earned her many awards including the Kala Ratna – she is its youngest recipient! Kruthi was born into a family of musicians and showed interest in music even as a toddler. She was initiated into Carnatic (South Indian Classical) music by her grandmother. She has had the privilege to call esteemed singers such as Padmabhushan Sri Lalgudi G. Jayaraman and Sri T.R. Subramanyan as her teachers. Kruthi has received numerous awards for her performances both in the US and India. She is currently studying Computer Engineering and Human Resource Development at the University of Houston.

Accompanying her on the violin is Sruthi Sarathy.  She is a Fulbright Scholar and is currently exploring the violin's role in defining and contesting the borders of Carnatic music as part of her studies.

Athrey Nadhan will be playing the Mridangam, a percussion instrument. He started playing when he was 5 years old and has performed in over 150 concerts across the United States and South India. He is currently a junior, studying Mechanical Engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

JUNE 23, 2018

Still I Rise: Vidhya Subramanian

You may write me down in history, with your bitter, twisted lies
You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust
I’ll rise.
Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise.
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise”
- Maya Angelou

Still I Rise is a dramatic dance-theater presentation incorporating Bharathanatyam, yoga, theater, spoken word and music. This solo work by Vidhya Subramanian exemplifies the example of Draupadi by urging every woman to awaken and realize that especially in current times, she has to fend for herself. Draupadi may have been saved by Krishna from being disrobed in court as her husbands and other watched helplessly or gleefully, but beyond that her sense of self was constantly challenged by her life circumstances. This piece interprets the pivotal, defining episodes in her life seen from a first person perspective. Covering six languages set to original music, it uses the take-off points in mythology to transcend into the imaginary, to build a bridge between myth and life, to re-write myth.

• Concept and Choreography:  Vidhya Subramanian

• Music composition:  Rajkumar Bharati

• Script:  Priya Das & Vidhya Subramanian

• Costume:  Sandhya Raman

• Sound and music production:  Sai Shravanam

• Lighting design:  Kaveri Seth

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