featuring
Fazal Qureshi, Tabla & Kanjira
Rakesh Chaurasia, Bansuri (bamboo flute)
THV Umashankar, Ghatam (clay pot)
Dilshad Khan, Sarangi
Navin Sharma, Dholak • Abbos Kosimov, Doyra
Meitei Pung Cholom Performing Troupe

Friday, April 13, 2012 • DOORS 7PM
- The Pabst Theater

Tickets at

www.pabsttheater.org/zakir

The preeminent classical tabla virtuoso of our time, Zakir Hussain delivers brilliant performances that have established him as a national treasure in his native India and easily one of the world’s most esteemed and influential musicians…

, renowned for his genre-defying collaborations. His playing is marked by uncanny intuition and masterful improvisational dexterity, founded in formidable knowledge and study. Masters of Percussion, an outgrowth of Hussain’s memorable tours with his father, the legendary Ustad Allarakha, has enjoyed successful tours in the West since 1996. Joining the 2012 tour will be Fazal Qureshi, tabla & kanjira; Rakesh Chaurasia,bansuri (bamboo flute); Dilshad Khan, sarangi; Navin Sharma, dholak,; Abbos Kosimov, doyra; and the Meitei Pung Cholom Performing Troupe (dancing drummers of Manipur).

Zakir Hussain is today appreciated both in the field of percussion and in the music world at large as an international phenomenon. A classical tabla virtuoso of the highest order, his consistently brilliant and exciting performances have not only established him as a national treasure in his own country, India, but gained him worldwide fame. His playing is marked by uncanny intuition and masterful improvisational dexterity, founded in formidable knowledge and study. The favorite accompanist for many of India’s greatest classical musicians and dancers, he has not let his genius rest there. 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. The foremost disciple of his father, the legendary Ustad Allarakha, Hussain was a child prodigy who began his professional career at the age of twelve and had toured internationally with great success by the age of eighteen. He 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 Grammy Awards in 1991 and 2009 for Best World Music Album for Planet Drum and Global Drum Project, both collaborations with Mickey Hart. His music and extraordinary contribution to the music world were honored in April 2009, with four widely-heralded and sold-out concerts on Carnegie Hall’s Perspectives series. Also in 2009, Zakir was named a Member in the Order of Arts and Letters by France’s Ministry of Culture and Communication. Most recently, the National Symphony Orchestra with Christoph Eschenbach commissioned and premiered Zakir’sConcerto for Four Soloists at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, which was met with great acclaim.

Fazal Qureshi began his training early under the keen eye of his father and guru, Ustad Allarakha. With encouragement and inspiration from his elder brother Zakir Hussain, Fazal has developed a style distinguished by a fine sense of rhythm, versatility and eloquence. He has performed both as a soloist and as an accompanist in prestigious “Sangeet Sammelans” in India as well as major festivals abroad. The remarkable ease with which Fazal accompanies veteran as well as young Indian classical instrumentalists, vocalists and dancers of both North and South, as well as Western instrumentalists, speaks of the discipline and dedication with which this young, talented artist has pursued music.

Rakesh Chaurasia, nephew and child prodigy of flute maestro Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia is the most accomplished disciple of his uncle and shows all the promise to carry the Chaurasia legacy to new heights. Rakesh possesses the right balance of strength and serenity, very critical factors for an exceptional flautist. Rakesh has already globe trotted many times over, enthralling audiences at classical and semi-classical concerts in Japan, Australia, Europe, South Africa and USA. He is also an accomplished musician having recorded with most of the leading stalwarts of the Indian film industry.

Dilshad Khan was born in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, and descends from a rich lineage of talented musicians. At the age of six, he began studying sarangi under the tutelage of his father Ustad Nasir Khan, a well known and gifted sitar player, his grandfather Ustad Gulab Khan, both an accomplished sarangi player and vocalist and his uncle Ustad Sultan Khan, a world-renowned sarangi player both recognized and celebrated by the president of India. He has played with such revered artists as Ustad Zakir Hussain, Ustad Gulam Mustafa Khan, Pandit Bhavani Shakar, Abida Parveen, Siva Mani and Louiz Banks. Dilshad has given a wide range of concerts all over the world and his artistry can be heard on the silver screen of both Bollywood and Hollywood