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| World Music Presents Zakir Hussain And Rahul Sharma |
Press Release
10/31/2007
Date: Friday, November 16
Time: 8:00 pm
Venue: Sanders Theatre, 42 Quincy St., Cambridge
Tickets: $37, $32 and $28. For tickets and information call World Music (617) 876-4275 or buy online at www.WorldMusic.org.
Son and musical disciple of Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Rahul Sharma is from a family steeped in the classical traditions of northern India. Like his illustrious father, Sharma plays the santoor, a type of hammered dulcimer whose strings are struck with a pair of light, carved wooden mallets. For this very special concert of north Indian classical music, he will be accompanied by India’s great tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain.
Rahul Sharma began studying the santoor at the age of seventeen under his legendary father, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. At the age of twenty-four, after studying economics at Mumbai’s Mithibai College, Rahul began accompanying his father and guru in concert. From the beginning, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma treated his son as an equal onstage, not as a supporting player as is traditional in guru/disciple relationships. This allowed Rahul to hone his stage presence and performance skills more quickly, and by the age of twenty-eight he was carrying concerts on his own.
In September 2000, Real World Records released Music of the Himalayas, a live CD featuring Rahul Sharma, percussionist Pandit Bhawani Shankar and tabla player Ustad Shafat Ahmed Khan. Since then, Sharma has released more than fifteen albums, both solo efforts and collaborations. He has also scored many Hindi films and in 2002 was nominated for Best Debut – Music Director by the Zee Bollywood Music Awards. His latest album, Time Traveler, was released in May 2007 by Saregama India Ltd.
Zakir Hussain is recognized as the leading tabla player of his generation and has been the favorite accompanist to Shivkumar Sharma, as well as to Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar, Birju Maharaj and others. The foremost disciple of his father, the late Ustad Allarakha, Hussain was a child prodigy who began his professional career at age twelve and toured internationally by age eighteen. He has been a chief architect in the world music movement working with many jazz and rock musicians, such as John McLaughlin, the Grateful Dead and Van Morrison, along with leading artists in Carnatic music. Hussain has been the recipient of many awards, honors and recognition as a significant Indian artist, among them the title of "Padma Bhushan" from the President of India for his artistic excellence and his contributions to the field of music, a National Heritage Fellowship (the NEA's highest honor for achievement in the traditional arts), and a Grammy for his part as performer, composer and co-producer of Mickey Hart's Planet Drum (Rykodisc, 1991).
Currently with over 100 recordings to his name, Hussain made his solo recording debut in 1987 with Making Music, which was acclaimed as one of the most inspired East/West fusion albums of all time. Since then, he has collaborated with a diverse array of artists, including George Harrison, Jack Bruce, Joe Henderson, Tito Puente, Pharoah Sanders, Billy Cobham, the Hong Kong Symphony, hip-hop choreographer Rennie Harris and PureMovement, the Mark Morris Dance Company, YoYo Ma, and the New Orleans Symphony. In 1991, Hussain founded Moment! Records which features original collaborations in the field of contemporary world music, as well as live concert performances by masters of classical Indian music and Hussain’s own ensembles. His latest release, Golden Strings of the Sarode (Moment!, 2005), was nominated for a Grammy in 2006 in the Best Traditional World Music Album category.
To download high resolution digital photos go to www.WorldMusic.org and click “PRESS CENTERâ€.
World Music is funded in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency which also receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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