Amjad Ali Khan
& Sharon Isbin

Amjad Ali Khan, sarod

Amjad Ali Khan is one of the undisputed masters of the music world. Born to sarod maestro Haafiz Ali Khan, he is the sixth generation in the legendary line of the Senia Bangash School. Since giving his first performance at the age of six, he has played for audiences worldwide, bringing a new and yet timeless interpretation to the repertoire, while being widely credited with reinventing the technique of playing the sarod.

Over the course of a distinguished career spanning more than six decades, Amjad Ali Khan has won numerous accolades, including a Grammy nomination, the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum, UNICEF’s National Ambassadorship, and the Fukuoka Cultural Grand Prize. 

Khan has made regular appearances at Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Sydney Opera House, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Esplanade Singapore, the Kennedy Center, and Symphony Center inChicago. He has performed at festivals worldwide including the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, WOMAD, World Beat Festival, Enescu Festival Bucharest, and the BBC Proms as well as for prestigious organizations such as the United Nations, UNESCO, World Arts Summit and for the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo in 2014.

Samaagam, his first sarod concerto, has been performed by the Britten Sinfonia, Orchestre National d’lle de France, Orchestre d’Auvergne, London Philharmonia, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Welsh National Opera and Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Khan’s passion for bringing the sarod to new audiences has seen him give numerous residencies and become appointed as Visiting Professor at several universities, including Stanford University, University of New Mexico, York University, and Jacob’s School of Music.

Khan was a Gold Medal Winner at the Global Music Awards for his outstanding contribution to the global music industry and excellence in the classical music sphere. This honor was bestowed on the trailblazing trio of Khan and his sons Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash in recognition of their Peace Worshipers album, which was released in July 2017 by Affetto Records and distributed by Naxos. 

The UN Day Concert 2018 featured Khan with the Refugee Orchestra Project. The concert dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi was themed on “Traditions of Peace and Non-violence” in the presence of António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations.

Khan recently performed for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee and multi-GRAMMY Award winning musician Joe Walsh’s Vetsaid Charity Concert in December 2020.

Sharon Isbin, guitar

Acclaimed for her extraordinary lyricism, technique and versatility, multiple Grammy Award winner Sharon Isbin was named the 2020 Musical America Worldwide Instrumentalist of the Year, the first guitarist ever to receive the coveted honor in its 59 year award history. 

Soloist with over 200 orchestras, Isbin has performed in the world’s finest halls. Winner of the Toronto, Madrid and Munich ARD Competitions, Germany’s Echo Klassik and Guitar Player’s Best Classical Guitarist awards, she performed in Scorsese’s Oscar-winning The Departed, at Ground Zero for the first internationally televised 9/11 memorial, the White House by invitation of President Obama, and as the only classical artist in the 2010 Grammy Awards. The documentary Sharon Isbin: Troubadour, seen by millions on over 200 PBS stations across the U.S. and abroad, won the ASCAP Television Broadcast Award. Recent highlights include a commission for her by Carnegie Hall, a 21-city Guitar Passions tour with jazz greats Stanley Jordan and Romero Lubambo, sold-out concerts at the Kennedy Center, Kimmel Center, and her most recent Carnegie Hall appearances included collaborations with Sting and in recital with Isabel Leonard.

Isbin’s catalogue of over 30 albums, from Baroque, Spanish/Latin and 20^th Century to crossover and jazz-fusion have sold nearly a million copies and reflect her remarkable versatility. Her two latest releases in May 2020 of world premiere recordings of music composed for her are Affinity, featuring Chris Brubeck’s acclaimed concerto for guitar and orchestra, and Strings for Peace, with India’s legendary Amjad Ali Khan in a program of ragas for guitar, sarod and tabla. 

Her 2019 release with the Pacifica Quartet, Souvenirs of Spain and Italy, debuted at #1 on Amazon and #2 on Billboard, and her Grammy-winning Journey to the New World with guests Joan Baez and Mark O’Connor spent 63 consecutive weeks on top Billboard charts. Isbin’s Dreams of a World earned her a Grammy for Best Instrumental Soloist, making her the first classical guitarist to receive the award in 28 years. Her recording of concerti composed for her by Christopher Rouse and Tan Dun was honored with a Grammy, and her Rodrigo Aranjuez with the New York Philharmonic, their only recording with guitar, received a Latin Grammy nomination.

Author of the Classical Guitar Answer Book, Isbin has premiered over 80 works written for her by some of the world’s finest composers, and directs the guitar departments at the Aspen Music Festival and The Juilliard School, which she created in 1989.

Please visit sharonisbin.com.

Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash, sarod

Cultural and musical traditions give life and purpose to the work they bring to the stage. By asking audiences to listen from the heart, Sarod virtuosos Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash breakthrough the troublesome polarities of continuity and change, tradition and innovation. In their sound we encounter technical assuredness bolstered by elegant lyricism and joy-filled dynamism. It is music forged from a unique artistic vision that rests upon a legacy seven generations deep and includes their revered father and grandfather, Amjad Ali Khan and Haafiz Ali Khan. Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash represent the seventh generation of a musical lineage, as sons and disciples of the sarod icon, Amjad Ali Khan. With him they have performed across the globe, including Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Smithsonian, and WOMAD festivals in many continents.

They have also collaborated with guitarist Derek Trucks of the Allman Brothers Band, guitarist Sharon Isbin, Chicago Philharmonic orchestra, Avignon symphony orchestra, and others, and they have established themselves as a duo, carrying forward their musical legacy in sync with both tradition and contemporary times. They performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert 2014 in Oslo and recently won the Gold Medal at the Global Music Awards in LA for their new album Peace Worshippers. More recently, the performed their father’s concerto Samaagam with New Jersey Symphony Orchestra with Conductor Xian Zhang, Moscow State Philharmonic Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Bronx Arts Ensemble. The UNDay Concert 2018 featured Sarod virtuoso Amjad Ali Khan, Amaan Ali Bangash, Ayaan Ali Bangash and the Refugee Orchestra Project conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya, Conductor themed on “Traditions of Peace and Non-violence” in the presence of António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations.

In 2020, STRINGS FOR PEACE: Premieres for Guitar & Sarod released on Zoho Music. Steeped in the tradition Indian classical music with Sarod master Amjad Ali Khan, his virtuoso sons Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash, and guitarist Sharon Isbin. The recording debuted at number three on the Amazon Hot New Releases/World Music bestseller list and rose to number two in its first week. 

Amaan Ali Bangash & Ayaan Ali Bangash joined Gwen Stefani, Jon Bon Jovi for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee and multi-GRAMMY Award winning musician Joe Walsh’s Vetsaid Charity Concert in December 2020.

Amit Kavthekar, tabla

Young and talented Amit Kavthekar was being groomed in the art of playing tabla by the legendary  Allarakha. He has also been fortunate enough to be taught tabla intricacies by Zakir Hussain – a maestro in Indian classical music an international phenomenon in the fields of percussion and world music. Amit played at the United Nations Day Concert 2018 with Amjad Ali Khan, Ayaan Ali Bangash and Amaan Ali Bangash as well as with the Refugee Orchestra project.

Amit has frequent collaborations with western classical, jazz and fusion musicians – He is a member of the Purnalokha quartet along with David Balakrishnan of the grammy winning Turtle Island Quartet. He has also played with the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra and is also a founder member of the band Sawaari, which explores music from different parts of the world.

 Amit is currently teaching Tabla in the New England School of Music based in Massachusetts. He is also a visiting teacher in Salem State University for the World Music Ensemble.

The sarod and the guitar belong to a common family of stringed musical instruments. Through this collaboration, we strive to preserve the essence of both Indian and Western traditions so they can flow into each other without artistic compromise. 

Each of the artists brings the spirit of sharing the great unique treasures of their own artistic traditions, as well as finding common ground in Ragas and Medieval modes. The idea is to achieve a cross-fertilization at both the cellular and cosmic levels of two classical music traditions, which are often held to be radically different. This is a blissful dream of a project, infused with the unique amalgamated contributions of artists united under a common aegis, regardless of their diverse backgrounds, cultures, traditions, generations, genders, religions, upbringing, and career paths.

— Amjad Ali Khan

It is an honor and joy to perform Strings for Peace! The music Amjad Ali Khan has composed for guitar and sarod is sheer genius, and I don’t use this term lightly. In an amazing way, it interweaves our varied musical, spiritual and artistic traditions with mystical beauty, creativity, grace and great emotion.  

— Sharon Isbin

Spanish Work for Solo Guitar

Spanish music is inspired by the rich and passionate tradition of flamenco, an art form many believe evolved in Andalucía with gypsies who traveled there from India. Indeed, one can hear elements of Indian classical music in the cante jondo (deep song) of flamenco, expressed by melismatic embellishments, rhythms and gestures in works of famed classical Spanish composers, including Albéniz and Tárrega.

AMJAD ALI KHAN 

Sacred Evening

Sacred Evening is based on Raga Yaman, a night raga, very romantic in nature, usually evocative of sunset and evening.

AMJAD ALI KHAN 

By the Moon

By the Moon is rendered in Raga Behag, a raga that is profoundly associated with the second quarter of the night, set to a 16-beat meter.

TRADITIONAL 

Raga and Folk Music

Raga is like a living entity. A mere scale is not a Raga. A scale is more like a skeleton. Even though the literal meaning of a Raga is Improvisation within a set framework of ascending and descending notes, a Raga must be invoked. It’s interesting to see how music can define and create a region of any country.

Folk music is one of the most natural forms of music which is self-taught all over the world.

AMJAD ALI KHAN 

Romancing Earth

Romancing Earth is based on Raga Pilu, often described as a peaceful raga associated with the second quarter of night. Pilu is a light form of Raga commonly used to express joy, devotion, happiness and love. Amjad Ali Khan’s melody is a markedly vocal idiom that shares much with the Indian classics and latter day Bollywood.