FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 25, 2016
Press Contacts:
Eileen Chambers/CSO
312.294.3092
Mary Jane Maharry/Brava PR
773.490.6046
Photos Available By Request
[email protected]
GRAMMY® AWARD-WINNING TABLA VIRTUOSO
ZAKIR HUSSAIN PERFORMS WITH THE
MASTERS OF PERCUSSION AT SYMPHONY CENTER
Sunday, March 20, at 3:00 p.m.
CHICAGO—Symphony Center Presents (SCP) hosts world-renowned classical tabla virtuoso
Zakir Hussain and the Masters of Percussion on Sunday, March 20 at 3:00 p.m. Hussain
delivers an inspiring, genre-defying performance with fellow musicians Anantha Krishnan
(Mridangam), Sabir Khan (Sarangi), Navin Sharma (Dholak), Mannargudi Vasudevan (Tavil),
and Seiichi Tanaka (Taiko). Since his Symphony Center debut in 2008, Hussain has returned
several times, including his 2013 appearance on the Symphony Center Presents Jazz series as
a special guest with the Herbie Hancock Quartet.
Widely considered one of the chief architects of the contemporary world music movement and a
national treasure in his native India, Hussain has contributed to a number of unique and historic
collaborations: Shakti, which he founded with extraordinary English guitarist John McLaughlin
and L. Shanka; the Grammy® Award-winning Planet Drum with Mickey Hart of the Grateful
Dead; as well as recordings and performances with artists as diverse as George Harrison, YoYo Ma, Van Morrison, Mark Morris, Rennie Harris and the Kodo drummers. Hussain’s 2009
recording, The Melody of Rhythm—with trio-mates’ banjo player, Béla Fleck, and bassist, Edgar
Meyer—was nominated for a GrammyⓇ in 2010.
Hussain, a dedicated disciple of his father, legendary tabla player Ustad Allarakha, crafted the
Masters of Percussion tour as an outgrowth of the successful tours of the West that he made
with his father, beginning in 1996. His playing is marked by uncanny intuition and masterful
improvisational dexterity, founded in formidable knowledge and study.
For the 2016 Masters of Percussion program Hussain has assembled a unique collective of
musicians. Anantha R. Krishnan is the grandson and disciple of mridangam (a double-ended
“Carnatic” Southern Indian drum) maestro Vidwan Shri. Palghat R. Raghu. Sabir Khan is the
ninth generation of his family to take up Sarangi (a stringed North Indian instrument played with
a bow), and is considered one of the beacons of the younger generation and the wonderful
product of a greatly talented lineage. He is particularly well known for his exceptional technique,
a unique combination of sur and laya (note and rhythm). Navin Sharma is a master of the
“Dholak” (a double-ended pitched drum associated with Indian folk music). Sharma studied with
Hussain’s father, Ustad Allarakha and has played with many masters across India, and in
genres that include jazz, fusion, pop, rock, gazal and bhajan. Mannargudi Vasudevan is best
known as “Vasu” and is widely recognized the world’s foremost performer on the Tavil, a barrelshaped drum prominent in Carnatic music. He has performed all over the United States,
Europe, and in Malaysia. Seiichi Tanaka is a master of the Japanese Taiko drum who
established the San Francisco Taiko Dojo. Acting as father of the art form in America, Tanaka’s
work was recognized in 2001 with a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment
of the Arts.
Tickets for all CSOA-presented concerts can be purchased by phone at 1-800-223-7114 or 3122943000; online at cso.org, or at the Symphony Center box office: 220 S. Michigan Ave.,
Chicago, IL 60604.
Discounted student tickets for select concerts can be purchased, subject to availability, online in
advance or at the box office on the day of the concert. For group rates, please call 312-2943040.
Artists, programs and prices are subject to change.
###
Symphony Center Presents
Special Concert
Sunday, March 20, 2016, 3:00 p.m.
Zakir Hussain and The Masters of Percussion
Zakir Hussain, Tabla and Vocals
Anantha Krishnan, Mridangam
Sabir Khan, Sarangi
Navin Sharma, Dholak
Mannargudi Vasudevan, Tavil
Seiichi Tanaka, Taiko
Tickets $25-$75
Zakir Hussain
Zakir Hussain is the reigning master virtuoso of the classical Indian tabla, an unrivaled performer with the
greats of Indian music. Moreover, his remarkably wide musical vision has taken him and his tabla into
unimagined realms of collaboration that make him one of the chief architects of the contemporary “world
music” movement. Shakti, which he founded with John McLaughlin and L. Shankar, the Diga Rhythm
Band and Planet Drum with Mickey Hart, and Sangam with Charles Lloyd and Eric Harland only begin to
sketch his career.
A child prodigy, Hussain was touring by the age of 12-years-old. He came to the United States in 1970,
performing his first US concert at the Fillmore East in New York City with Pandit Ravi Shankar, embarking
on an illustrious international career.
In the past few years, his Triple Concerto for Banjo, Bass and Tabla, a piece co-composed with 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
Hussain, Meyer and Fleck, was released as The Melody of Rhythm in 2009.
Hussain’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. Most
recently, his third concerto, Peshkar, debuted in September 2015 to rapturous acclaim in
Mumbai. Performed by Hussain and the Symphony Orchestra of India at the National Centre for the
Performing Arts, it was described in the Hindustan Times as “a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Simply
sublime.”
He has received countless honors from sources ranging from the Indian, French, and U.S. governments
to Modern Drummer, Drum!, and Downbeat Magazines and NARAS (the “Grammys”). He was 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. The following school year he taught the course again,
at Stanford University. In 2007, the government of India chose him 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. 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.
In 1992, Hussain 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. He is currently resident artistic director at SFJAZZ.
Masters of Percussion Artist Biographies
Anantha Krishnan
Anantha R. Krishnan is the grandson and disciple of mridangam (a double-ended “Carnatic” Southern
Indian drum) maestro Vidwan Shri. Palghat R.Raghu. Krishnan initially learned mridangam from his uncle,
Shri. R. Ramkumar. He also studies tabla with Ustad Zakir Hussain. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from
Dartmouth College and a Master of Fine Arts from Mills College, California. He currently serves on the
faculty of KM Music Conservatory in Chennai.
Sabir Khan
Sabir Khan is the ninth generation of his family to take up Sarangi (a stringed North Indian instrument
played with a bow), and is considered one of the beacons of the younger generation and the wonderful
product of a greatly talented lineage. He began to learn music at the age of six from his grandfather,
Ustad Gulab Khan, who was a great sarangi player and vocalist. Soon after, Khan began to study with
his father, the world-renowned sarangi player and vocalist Ustad Sultan Khan, and with his late uncle,
Ustad Nasir Khan. His extraordinary technique of combining sur and laya (note and rhythm) has made
him stand out. In addition to his outstanding work in classical music, he has played with both gazal
masters and on many Indian films.
Navin Sharma
A master of the “Dholak” (a double-ended pitched drum associated with Indian folk music), Sharma first
studied with his father, Shri Shyam Rughuram Sharma. Seeking to learn more in the classical vein, he
studied with Hussain’s father, Ustad Allarakha. Navin has played with many masters across India, and in
genres that include jazz, fusion, pop, rock, gazal and bhajan.
Mannargudi Vasudevan
Best known as “Vasu,” Mannargudi Vasudevan is the world’s premiere performer on the Tavil, a barrelshaped drum prominent in Carnatic music. He trained at the Valivalam Music School, and his primary
teacher was Kunju Singaravelu Pillai. He has performed all over the United States, Europe, and in
Malaysia. He is also an Examiner at the Chennai Music College.
Seiichi Tanaka
Master of the Japanese Taiko drum, he will bring to Masters of Percussion the international fusion that
has been the hallmark of Zakir Hussain’s career. Tanaka trained in Japan with Daihachi Oguchi in
Nagano, Susumu Kowase in Tokyo, and Shosaku Ikeda of Goinjo Daiko, and then established the San
Francisco Taiko Dojo, acting as father of the art form in America. Gifted graduates of his school have
spread the art of taiko across the country and beyond. In 2001 his important work was recognized by the
award of a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra: www.cso.org and www.csosoundsandstories.org/
Founded in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the greatest
orchestras in the world. Since 2010, the preeminent conductor Riccardo Muti has served as its 10th
music director. Yo-Yo Ma is the CSO’s Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant, and Samuel Adams
and Elizabeth Ogonek are its Mead Composers-in-Residence.
From baroque through contemporary music, the CSO commands a vast repertoire. Its renowned
musicians annually perform more than 150 concerts, most at Symphony Center in Chicago and, each
summer, at the suburban Ravinia Festival. They regularly tour nationally and internationally. Since 1892,
the CSO has made 58 international tours, performing in 29 countries on five continents.
People around the globe listen to weekly radio broadcasts of CSO concerts and recordings on the WFMT
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including two in 2011 for Muti’s recording with the CSO and Chorus of Verdi's Messa da Requiem (Muti’s
first of four releases with the CSO to date). Find details on these and many other CSO recordings at
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The CSO is part of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, which also includes the Chicago
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ensemble for emerging professionals. Through its prestigious Symphony Center Presents series, the
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contemporary.
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