Lovers of Indian classical music are in for a treat in February 2010 when world-renowned, Swiss-based sarod player Ken Zuckerman will be touring South Africa in a festival titled «Three Shades of Raga».
Internationally acclaimed as one of the finest sarod virtuosos performing today, Zuckerman has also been called “…one of the world’s most eclectic masters of improvisation”. He has completed thirty-five years of training under the rigorous discipline of India’s legendary sarod master, the late Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, with whom he has performed in numerous concerts in Europe, India, and the United States.
It is almost impossible to trace the precise evolution of the sarod over the course of many centuries. Representations of instruments resembling the sarod have been found among the 1st Century carvings of the Champa Temples (Madhya Pradesh) as well as in the archeological remains of Rupar (2000 B.C.) and the sculptural representations of Gandhara (6th Century B.C.) in India. Still, it is generally agreed that the sarod – in its present form – is at least 100 years old.
In addition to performing classical Indian music with some of India’s finest tabla virtuosos like Zakir Hussain, Swapan Chaudhuri and Anindo Chatterjee, Zuckerman has been at the vanguard of numerous cultural “crossover” projects. These include the Grammy-nominated album “Diaspora Sefardi” (Hesperion XXI), “India Meets Persia”, with Tar virtuoso Hossein Alizadeh, and “Meeting Two Worlds of Modal Music”, with the medieval singer, Dominique Vellard.
As a lutenist, Zuckerman was a student of Thomas Binkley, Eugen M. Dombois, Paul O’Dette, and Hopkinson Smith. He is known especially as an expert in the field of improvisation in medieval music, and since 1980 has taught in this area at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. He has made numerous recordings on both the lute and sarod. In addition to his extensive performance schedule, Zuckerman is the principal of the Ali Akbar College of Music in Switzerland, and is also a teacher at the Music Conservatory of Basel where he conducts courses in both North Indian classical music and the music of the Middle Ages.
Ken Zuckerman is one of three principal artists featured at the festival and will be accompanied on tabla by the highly rated Pandit Anindo Chatterjee. The other artists are violin virtuoso Kala Ramnath and the doyen of Indian classical vocal, Pandit Jasraj.
The concert will also feature a pre-show talk by BBC presenter and musicologist Jameela Siddiqi.
Concert Dates
Wednesday 10 February 2010 – Durban City Hall, Durban
Friday 12 February 2010 – Artscape Opera House, Cape Town
Sunday 14 February 2010 – Lyric Theatre, Johannesburg
Tickets available at www.computicket.com
Further information at www.tabla.co.za
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