BOSTON–Tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain this spring presents TISRA (three) with two of India’s finest young musicians, Sabir Khan and Debopriya Chatterjee. See the program schedule below.
In a Face-to-Face interview with INDIA New England News, the Tabla maestro discusses his US tour accompanied with two young Indian artists, his upcoming performance in Boston and the debut of Tabla in the West as well as his historic win of three Grammy awards.
To watch the full interview, please click here, or on the image below.
The past year has been a banner year of recognition for the iconic musician/composer/cultural ambassador Zakir Hussain. The list of awards and accolades has been remarkable: The Kyoto Prize; the Aga Khan Lifetime Achievement Award; the Padma Vibhushan (the government of India’s 2nd highest civilian honor); Best Percussionist Awards by the Downbeat Critics Poll, The Downbeat Readers Poll, Modern Drummer’s Readers Poll and the Jazz Journalists of America; AND 3 Grammy wins for This Moment (Shakti)-Best Global Music Album and As We Speak (with Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Rakesh Chaurasia)-Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, Best Global Performance. Zakir is the first musician from India to win 3 Grammys at one Awards ceremony.
2023 was made even more memorable by the international tour of “Shakti50”, celebrating 50 years of the groundbreaking, boundary-defying and influential band founded by Zakir and legendary guitarist John McLaughlin.
This year’s unique TISRA trio is comprised of tabla, sarangi, and bansuri (bamboo flute), a combination not often heard on the classical stage. Sarangi and bansuri each have roots in ancient India and its mythology; both are also folk instruments.
TISRA showcases the rich folk and classical traditions of the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab. It is widely accepted that the musical influence of Rajasthani gypsies has been heard far beyond the borders of India, and that Uttar Pradesh incorporated the folk music forms of Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet into its music.
This colorful mix combined with Indian classical music and the rich rhythm repertoire of Punjab makes for a compelling offering that TISRA brings to audiences in the United States. Moreover, the trio intends to initiate a conversation between the sarangi, with its close resemblance to the human voice, and the bansuri, a breath instrument.
The pre-eminent classical tabla virtuoso of our time, Zakir Hussain is appreciated as one of the world’s most esteemed and influential musicians, one whose mastery of his percussion instrument has taken it to a new level transcending cultures and national borders. Along with his legendary father and teacher, Ustad Allarakha, he has elevated the status of the tabla both in India and around the world.
A child prodigy touring in India from the tender age of twelve, Zakir quickly became a favorite accompanist for India’s greatest musicians and dancers. He began his international touring career by the age of eighteen, and has been at the helm of many genre-defying collaborations including Shakti, Remember Shakti, Masters of Percussion, Diga, Planet Drum, Tabla Beat Science and Sangam. His first solo album Making Music was released in 1987, acclaimed as “one of the most inspired East-West fusion albums ever recorded.” In 1991, Planet Drum, an album co-created and produced with Mickey Hart, became the first recording to win a Grammy in the Best World Music category and the Downbeat Critics’ Poll for Best World Beat Album. Zakir’s music and extraordinary contribution to the music world were honored in April, 2009, with four widely-heralded and sold-out concerts for Carnegie Hall’s Artist Perspective series.
Zakir is the 2022 Kyoto Prize Laureate in Arts and Philosophy and is the recipient of countless other awards, including two Grammys, Padma Vibhushan (2023), Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri, Officier in France’s Order of Arts and Letters, the 2022 Aga Khan Music Award and the 1999 National Heritage Fellowship, the USA’s highest honor for a master of traditional arts. Voted “Best Percussionist” by both the Downbeat Critics’ Poll and Modern Drummer’s Reader’s Poll over several years, including 2020, Zakir was honored with SFJazz’s Lifetime Achievement Award at their 2017 Gala for his “unparalleled contribution to the world of music”.
As a composer, he has scored music for many feature films, has composed numerous original works, and has composed four concertos, the most recent premiered in September, 2023, by the Symphony Orchestra of India. In 2009, “Triple Concerto for Banjo, Bass and Tabla” and new works composed by Zakir, Edgar Meyer, and Bela Fleck, were released as the Grammy-nominated The Melody of Rhythm. Zakir’s second concerto, “Ameen, Amen, Shanti – Concerto for Four Soloists,” a special commission for the National Symphony Orchestra, premiered at Kennedy Center in March, 2011. His third concerto, “Peshkar-Concerto for Tabla and Orchestra,” the first ever with this configuration, was premiered in September, 2015, by the Symphony Orchestra of India, subsequently enjoying international premieres.
Zakir’s career as an educator is no less splendid, having led workshops and master classes all over the world in the course of his career. He has been a professor at Princeton University, Stanford University, the University of Washington, and at UC Berkeley in the prestigious post of Regents Lecturer. Zakir’s yearly tabla workshop in Marin County, California, draws hundreds of serious students and performers. In 2019, he was selected as a Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellow and awarded honorary doctorates from Berklee College of Music, Boston, from Indira Kala Sangeet University, Khairagarh, and, in 2022, from Mumbai University and ITM University, Gwalior.
Zakir is the founder and president of Moment! Records, an independent record label presenting rare live concert recordings of Indian classical music and world music.
Sabir Khan
Sabir Khan is one of India’s most talented and sought-after musicians of the present day. His instrument is the sarangi, a bowed instrument said to possess the sound closest to the human voice. He is the son of the great sarangi player/vocalist Padma Bhushan Ustad Sultan Khan, their family belonging to the Sikar gharana (school) of music, which has given several stalwarts to Indian classical music, including his great-grandfather Ustad Azim Khansahib, a court musician at Sikar in Rajasthan.
Sabir was born in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, and began training at the age of 6 with his grandfather, Ustad Gulab Khan. The 10th generation of his family to play sarangi, Sabir is known today for his consummate mastery, employing a technique that is a rare combination of sur and laya (note and rhythm). He often performed with his illustrious
father in concert and has appeared as a soloist and alongside many of India’s greatest artists, including Zakir Hussain, Pandit Birju Maharaj, Ustad Rashid Khan, gazal maestro Ustad Gulam Ali, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. Sabir is a popular composer for film and TV, having scored and composed songs for many feature films, including Jodha Akbar, Dangal and Sanwariya. He appeared with A.R. Rehman and Shreya Ghosal in their episode of MTV Unplugged and has recently founded his own record label, featuring a number of talented artists and celebrity singers, including Salim-Sulaiman
Debopriya Chatterjee
The musical journey of Debopriya Chatterjee began at home, under the guidance of her parents Professor Robin Chatterjee & Mrs. Krishna Chatterjee, both vocalists & composers from Allahabad. Debopriya started her initial flute training under the guidance of the late Pandit Bholanath Prasanna Ji of Allahabad. Her quest to express the depth and richness of Hindustani classical music, and of her chosen instrument, the bansuri (bamboo flute), brought her to the feet of her guru, the great exponent of the Maihar Senia Gharana Padmavibhushan Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia.
In the past 25 years, under the tutelage of her guru, she has grown tremendously as a musician and a performer. She has had the honor & privilege of accompanying her guru on stage for various prestigious concerts in India and abroad. She has also performed individually and along with her elder sister Suchismita at various music conferences and soirees all over the world. Known as the “Flutesisters”, they are among very few women flautists performing Hindustani classical music.
Accolades and awards have been showered on her, including the “Rashtriya Kumar Gandharwa Puraskar” by the government of Madhya Pradesh for the year 2020, the prestigious “Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar” by the Sangeet Natak Akademy, “Award for Excellence” by Sahara India, and “Surmani” by Kal ke Kalakar, to name a few. She achieved her Sangeet Pravin (Master of Music) and Sangeet Prabhakar (Bachelor of Music) from Prayag Sangeet Samiti – Allahabad in Vocal and Flute with Gold Medal honors. At Rotterdam’s World Music Conservatory, she acquired a DM (Docenten Musicus) and UM (Uitvoerend Musicus) with distinction. She is a graded artist of All India Radio-Mumbai and an empaneled artist of ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations).
Tour schedule”
3/15F Al Larson Prairie Center for the Arts, Schaumburg, IL.
3/16Sa Shannon Hall at Wisconsin Union Theater, Madison, WI
3/20WWashington Performing Arts, Washington DC.
3/22F Bailey Hall, Cornell U., Ithaca, NY.
3/23Sa SPA Little Theater, Saratoga
3/24Su Berklee Performing Arts Center, Boston, MA
3/27WIsabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, Kingston, Ontario.
3/28H Place Des Arts, Montreal.
3/29F Flato Markham Theatre, Markham, Ontario.
4/2Tu Lucas Theatre, Savannah, GA.
4/6Sa Lawrence Memorial Chapel, Appleton, WI.
4/7Su James Lumber Center for the Performing Arts, Grayslake, IL.
4/12F Matthews Theatre, Princeton, NJ.
4/13Sa Victoria Theater, Newark, NJ.
4/20Sa Bank of America PAC, Thousand Oaks, CA
4/21Su San Ramon PAC, San Ramon, CA.
4/23Tu Carriage House Theatre at the Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, CA.
4/24WHarris Center, Folsom, CA.
4/26F The Moore Theater, Seattle, WA.
4/27Sa Chan Centre, Vancouver, BC.
4/28Su The Royal Theater, Victoria, BC.
