Download Famed Indian tabla player and composer Zakir Hussain and Masters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 7, 2012
CONTACT: Brenda Kean Tabor
(202) 533-1886
[email protected]
Famed Indian tabla player and composer
Zakir Hussain and Masters of Percussion perform
at The Kennedy Center on March 17
Washington, D.C.- Described by the
Washington Post as “one of the biggest stars of
Indian music” tabla player and composer Zakir
Hussain returns to the Kennedy Center just over
a year after his critically-acclaimed concert
with the National Symphony Orchestra. Said
the Washington Post of last year’s performance
of his NSO-commissioned work, Concerto for
Zakir Hussain
Click here to see a performance on
youtube
Four Soloists, “Hussain and his two
compatriots offered an impressive level of
virtuosity - the tabla employing a rich
vocabulary of sounds and intricate, continually nuanced rhythms.” Said London’s Independent
of another performance, “Tabla-king Zakir has had a glittering career. Laden with honours [sic],
he has won Grammys and Globes galore, and played with everyone from George Harrison to
jazz avant-gardists. I found him dazzling his capacity audience … I, too, was dazzled.”
Zakir Hussain’s performances have established him as a national treasure in his native
India and as one of the world’s most esteemed and influential musicians, renowned for his genreWho: Zakir Hussain & Masters of Percussion
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– dancing drummer of Manipur
When: Saturday, March 17 at 3 p.m.
Where: Kennedy Center Concert Hall
Tickets, $15-65, available at www.wpas.org or 202-785-9727
defying collaborations. 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 is widely
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considered a chief architect of the contemporary world music movement.
Hussain’s contribution to world music have included many historic collaborations,
including Shakti, which he founded with John McLaughlin and L. Shankar. In addition to former
Beatle George Harrison, Hussain has recorded and performed with artists as diverse as Yo-Yo
Ma, Joe Henderson, Van Morrison, Airto Moreira, Pharoah Sanders, Billy Cobham, Mark
Morris, Rennie Harris and the Kodo drummers. His music and contribution to world music were
honored in April 2009 with four widely-heralded and sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall’s Artist
Perspective series.
Son of the legendary tabla player Ustad Alla Rakha, Zakir Hussain was born in Mumbai,
India. Hussain began touring at age 12 and first came to the United States in 1970. He
collaborates with the Silk Road Project and teaches in San Francisco and Mumbai.
Hussain starred in the Merchant Ivory film Heat and Dust in 1983, for which he also
composed the score. He composed, performed and acted as Indian music advisor for
the Malayalam film Vanaprastham. (Malayalam is the official language of the state of Kerala in
south western India and is also spoken elsewhere in India and by large numbers of Indians
abroad.) Hussain has also composed soundtracks for other movies, including In Custody and The
Mystic Masseur by Ismail Merchant. Hussain played tabla on the soundtracks of Francis
Coppola's Apocalypse Now, Bernardo Bertolucci's Little Buddha and other films and composed
the soundtrack of Mr. and Mrs. Iyer.
He also starred in several documentaries showcasing his musical performance both solo
and with different bands, including the 1998 documentary "Zakir and His Friends" and the
documentary "The Speaking Hand: Zakir Hussain and the Art of the Indian Drum" (2003). He
also performs in the DVDs The Rhythm Devils Concert Experience (2008) and The Way of
Beauty (2006) with the band Remember Shakti.
Masters of Percussion, an outgrowth of Hussain’s tours with his father, the legendary
Ustad Allarakha, has enjoyed successful tours in the West since 1996.
Downloadable high-resolution images are available at www.wpas.org/pressroom
Funded in part by the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities, an agency supported in part by
National Endowment for the Arts.
WPAS is committed to making every event accessible for persons with disabilities. Please call the WPAS Ticket Services Office for
more information on accessibility to the various theaters in which our performances are held. Services offered vary from venue to venue and may
require advance notice.
Washington Performing Arts Society has created profound opportunities for connecting the community to artists, in both education and
performance. Through live events in venues that criss-cross the landscape of the D.C. metropolitan area, the careers of emerging artists are
guided, and established artists who have bonded with the local audience are invited to return. In this way, the space between artists and
audiences is eliminated, so that all may share life-long opportunities to deepen their cultural knowledge, enrich their lives, and expand their
understanding and compassion of the world through the universal language of the arts.
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