On Saturday, March 28, at 8:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, Grammy Award-winning tabla maestro Zakir Hussain brings together some of the world's top Indian and Celtic musicians for Zakir Hussain's Pulse of the World: Celtic Connections.
The one-of-a-kind performance fuses the sounds of traditional Celtic instruments with the tabla, bamboo flute, and Carnatic violin, providing a rich and unique musical experience that explores cross-cultural sounds and rhythms rarely heard together.
This unique collaboration originated when Hussain was invited to perform with musicians at the opening night gala of Glasgow's annual Celtic Connections Festival in Scotland in 2011, and after just days of rehearsing, they kicked off what many deem the most successful festival in years. The group then went on to be a huge hit at the London 2012 Olympic Festival and are now embarking on their first North American tour.
For this performance, Hussain will be joined by an ensemble of master musicians featuring Scottish fiddlers Charlie McKerron and Patsy Reid; classical Indian violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan, bamboo flute player Rakesh Chaurasia, flute and pipes player Fraser Fifield, flute player Jean-Michel Veillon, guitarist Tony Byrne, and bodhrán player John
Joe Kelly.
About the Artists:
Zakir Hussain is one of the foremost percussionists of the contemporary world, not only of Indian classical music but also of jazz and world music. As a player and composer he is a brilliant example of border-crossing music. Widely considered a chief architect of the contemporary world music movement, he has historic collaborations to his name, including Shakti, which he founded with John McLaughlin and L. Shankar, the Diga Rhythm Band, Making Music, Planet Drum with Mickey Hart, and recordings and performances with artists as diverse as Joshua Redman, George Harrison, Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer Joe Henderson, Van Morrison, Jack Bruce, Tito Puente, Pharoah Sanders, Billy Cobham, Rennie Harris, and the Kodo drummers. Mr. 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. His third concerto, the first ever composed for tabla, will premiere in Mumbai in fall of 2015, with the Symphony Orchestra of India.
In the 200 years since the violin entered Indian music traditions, few Indian violinists have become more distinguished than Ganesh Rajagopalan. In the Indian tradition, he began his musical studies young and was performing by the age of seven. Mr. Rajagopalan became famous in a duo with his brother Kumaresh, but has also played extensively with a "who's who" of Indian musicians over the years. Mr. Rajagopalan has worked with many greats, from Zakir Hussain to the Oscar-winning Bollywood music director
A.R. Rahman to the legendary
John McLaughlin.
Indian flute player Rakesh Chaurasia is following in the family tradition: his uncle, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, is among the icons of his generation on the instrument, and Rakesh is his most accomplished disciple. He has performed with a broad spectrum of the great musicians of India, as well as Western musicians like Béla Fleck,
Edgar Meyer, and Joshua Redman. He has received many important awards in India, most recently the Pannalal Ghosh Puraskar in 2013. Mr. Chaurasia has taken part in many prominent festivals, including WOMAD in Athens and the Festival of St.-Denis in Paris and was invited to conclude the 24-hour live BBC Radio broadcast celebrating Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee. His instrument, the bansuri-the bamboo Indian flute-is part of the mythology of many cultures: Krishna, Kokopelli, and Pan all played it.
Charlie McKerron was born in London and spent time in Africa before his family returned to his father's homeland of Scotland when he was five. By the age of 12, he was winning fiddle competitions, and after completing school he came to prominence as a member of Capercaillie, a traditional Celtic band from the Argyll area of Western Scotland. It began in a purely acoustic vein, but over the years achieved considerable fame by experimenting with various elements of fusion, incorporating funk bass, synthesizers, and contemporary styles.
Patsy Reid is the most in-demand traditional fiddle player in Scotland. Just as she was finishing college, she co-founded Breabach, which was nominated as the best Folk Band by the BBC Radio 2 at their 2011 Folk Awards. Soon after, she began working with various artists, including the celebrated Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell, Dougie Maclean, and
Kylie Minogue, and in the studio with a variety of projects. At the 2012 Olympic Festival, she met Zakir Hussain, and has since visited India four times, collaborating with various South Asian musicians.
One of the more distinctive pipers in Scotland, Fraser Fifield is an uncommonly wide-ranging multi-instrumentalist, performing on various pipes, whistles, the soprano saxophone, Bulgarian Kaval, and occasionally on percussion. Perhaps that variety is why, as Jazzwise put it, he is "an outstanding product of the Scottish jazz-folk scene who at one moment can blow a low whistle like
Charlie Parker steaming his way through 'Ko-Ko' and at the next knock out an air on a sax like a Highland traditionalist." He has released five albums of original music on his own Tanar label; has been commissioned by a wide range of festivals, the Scottish
Arts Council, and the BBC; and performed from the US to Azerbaijan with groups like Capercaillie and Afro-Celt Sound System, among many others.
Though Celtic culture is associated with Scotland and Ireland, the region of France known as Brittany is Celtic as well. Hailing from Brittany, the Celtic region of France, Jean-Michel Veillon was first a dancer and then a bombard (the Breton double-reed oboe) player in his teens before moving on to the transverse wooden flute. His first influences were Irish, but he soon created distinct articulation techniques that reflected his Breton heritage. After years of touring the US with groups like Kornog, Pennou Skoulm, Den, and Barzaz, Mr. Veillon has become renowned for introducing the wooden flute into Breton folk music.
A Dubliner, Tony Byrne has focused on traditional Irish music since leaving college in 1999, including working with Matt Molloy and Lúnasa. But he's also crossed into different territory to play with
Led Zeppelin's
John Paul Jones, the American dobro master
Jerry Douglas, banjo king Béla Fleck, and the classical violinist Nicola Benedetti. In addition to college teaching credentials in Dublin, he has worked with the Galway Arts Festival and has been a cast member of the award-winning play Trad, which has toured to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well as Australia.
England's The Guardian said of John
Joe Kelly that he was "...surely the greatest living Bodhrán player" alive. He is certainly one of the most sought-after bodhrán players on the folk music scene today. Mr. Kelly is a member of the groups Flook and the Mike McGoldrick Band, among others. Although a stalwart of the traditional scene, he is constantly expanding the boundaries of what one can get out a simple drum. In recent years he has been involved in many world music collaborations, with musicians from Tim O'Brien and Kate Rusby to Don Tyminski and Zakir Hussain.
Program Information:
Saturday, March 28, 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
ZAKIR HUSSAIN'S PULSE OF THE WORLD: CELTIC CONNECTIONS
Zakir Hussain, Tabla
Rakesh Chaurasia, Bamboo Flute
Fraser Fifield, Flute and Pipes
Jean-Michel Veillon, Flute
Ganesh Rajagopalan, Violin
Charlie McKerron, Fiddle
Patsy Reid, Fiddle
Tony Byrne, Guitar
John Joe Kelly, Bodhrán
Tickets, priced $35-$80, are available at the
Carnegie Hall Box Office, 154 West 57th Street, or can be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or by visiting the
Carnegie Hall website,
carnegiehall.org.
For
Carnegie Hall Corporation presentations taking place in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, a limited number of seats, priced at $10, will be available day-of-concert beginning at 11:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 12:00 noon on Sunday until one hour before the performance or until supply lasts. The exceptions are
Carnegie Hall Family Concerts and gala events. These $10 tickets are available to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis at the
Carnegie Hall Box Office only. There is a two-ticket limit per customer.
In addition, for all
Carnegie Hall presentations in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage a limited number of partial view (seats with obstructed or limited sight lines or restricted leg room) will be sold for 50% of the full price. For more information on this and other discount ticket programs, including those for students, Notables members, and Bank of America customers, visit
carnegiehall.org/discounts. Artists, prices, and programs are subject to change.
Photo Credit: Jim McGuire
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