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Press Release
04/17/2007
PANDIT SHIVKUMAR SHARMA, santoor
ZAKIR HUSSAIN, tabla
Date: May 6, 2007
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: Somerville Theatre, Davis Square, Somerville, MA
Cost: $40.00, $30.00 (includes Somerville Theatre $1.00 restoration fee)
Tickets: http://www.worldmusic.org/concerts_event_indiv.php?p_seq=595
Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and Zakir Hussain in concert is one of the great musical feasts of our time. Touring since the early 80’s with great success, theirs have become one of the most highly anticipated and applauded concert performances both in India and internationally. Already living legends, each has carved out an unprecedented career for himself, asserting the highest standard of Indian classical music by virtue of the inimitable virtuosity and creativity for which they have become renowned. The special chemistry between them is nurtured by a deep personal respect for each other’s work and longtime friendship. This is a special combination of two great and celebrated artists who have each brought their instrument to the world in an unparalleled manner and whose acclaimed performances are the last word in masterful technique, brilliant improvisation and refined mood.
Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, one of the most popular and revered Indian classical musicians of our day, is certainly our greatest living santoor player. Throughout his performance career of over a half-century, Shivkumar Sharma has fashioned another genre of instrumental music, creating an adoring audience of new listeners and ardent fans of Indian classical music. His performances are a brilliant combination of opulent knowledge, perfect skill and abundant spontaneous creativity, awaited by connoisseurs, music students, musicians and lay listeners alike. He has single-handedly brought about a revolution in the development and history of his instrument, both re-designing and re-defining it. If the santoor today needs no introduction, it is due to his work and genius, since he has brought this little-known Kashmiri folk instrument to the classical concert halls of India and the world.
Born in 1938 in Jammu, Kashmir, Shivkumar was trained by his father, Pandit Uma Dutt Sharma, who extensively researched the santoor and, convinced of the potentialities of the instrument, bestowed the responsibility of establishing it for the concert platform on his only son Shivkumar. The young student first learned vocal music and tabla before beginning his study of the santoor, a complete musical training evident in his work and performances. Moreover, in order to achieve the subtleties of Indian classical music, Shivji, early in his career, made important modifications to his instrument, refining the santoor to eighty-six strings and increasing the range to cover a full three octaves. At the same time, he created a new technique with which he is able to masterfully sustain notes and maintain sound continuity.
While he never compromises on the purity of music, Pandit Sharma’s open-minded approach has resulted in popular and innovative recordings, including Call of the Valley, Feelings and Mountains. He has had a long and successful career composing for films and has made the sound of the santoor indispensable to Indian film music. His compositions for blockbusters like Silsila, Lamhe, Chandni, and Darr, to name a few, are all-time favorites. Moreover, he is a dedicated teacher, imparting his knowledge in the Guru Shishya tradition to the next generation of musicians, training students from all over the world. His son and disciple Rahul Sharma has already made a name for himself as a formidable talent and performer.
He has garnered many prestigious awards including Padma Vibhushan (2001), the Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan Award (1998), Padmashree (1991), an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Jammu (1991) and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1986).
About the santoor: The santoor was first presented on the classical stage by Shivkumar Sharma in Bombay in 1955, when the maestro was only 17 years old. Originally known as "Shata Tantra Veena", literally "hundred-stringed instrument", “santoor†is a Persian word of the same meaning. Used in the early decades of the twentieth century to accompany a style of singing known as Sufiana Mausiqi, the santoor is played with a pair of curved sticks made of walnut and is thought to have been carried around by itinerant gypsies since today we may find its counterpart all over the world--in the kanoon of Turkey, the zither of Germany and the santoori of Greece, to name but a few.
Zakir Hussain, a classical tabla maestro of the first order, is today celebrated not only in the field of percussion, but in the music world at large, as an international phenomenon. Having made unprecedented strides in bringing his instrument to a global audience, his consistently brilliant performances have established him as one of India’s most renowned cultural ambassadors. The favorite accompanist for most of the greatest musicians and dancers of India, Zakir has also been a chief architect of the world music movement with his prodigious, incomparable and historic collaborations, including Shakti, Remember Shakti, The Diga Rhythm Band, Planet Drum and Masters of Percussion. The foremost disciple of his father, the legendary Ustad Allarakha, Zakir was a child prodigy who began his professional career at the age of twelve and toured internationally with great success by the age of eighteen. Zakir has been the recipient of many awards, grants and honors, including Padma Bhushan (2002), Padma Shri (1988), the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1991), Kalidas Samman (2006), the 1999 National Heritage Fellowship Award, the Bay Area Isadora Duncan Award (1998-99) and a Grammy in 1991 for Best World Music Album for Planet Drum. Zakir’s career includes much work as a composer, having composed and directed music for many film scores (Little Buddha, In Custody, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, Mystic Masseur, Saaz, Apocalypse Now, to name a few) and commissions, including original scores for YoYo Ma’s Silk Road project with Mark Morris, for Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet and the opening music for the 1996 summer Olympics in Atlanta. Most recently, he has collaborated on composing and performing the Triple Concerto for Banjo, Double Bass and Tabla for the gala opening of the Schermerhorn Symphony Hall in Nashville last September 8th. He is a 2006 Grammy nominee for his own label’s most recent release.
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