Tonight, April 24 at 8:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall, acclaimed musicians from Afghanistan, India, and Tajikistan join together for In the Footsteps of Babur, a program celebrating the exuberant vitality of the Mughal court in the 16th century. Featured artists on the program-presented by Carnegie Hall in partnership with Robert Browning Associates-include Homayun Sakhi (Afghan rubab), Rahul Sharma (santur), Salar Nader (tabla), Sirojiddin Juraev (dutar and tanbur), and Mukhtor Muborakqadamov (Badakhshani setar).
In the Footsteps of Babur represents a modern-day version of Mughal artistic fusion. Inspired by visual images and literary descriptions of high-spirited music-making in the Mughal courts-which stretched across a vast area of the Indian subcontinent beginning in 1526-the Aga Khan Music Initiative has brought together musicians from Afghanistan, India, and Tajikistan with the aim of merging their talents, traditions, and musical instruments to create new sounds.
Since immigrating to the United States in 2002, Homayun Sakhi has established a worldwide reputation as the outstanding Afghan rubab player of his generation. Born in Kabul into one of Afghanistan's leading musical families, he studied rubab with his father, Ustad Ghulam Sakhi, in the traditional form of apprenticeship known as ustad-shagird. Ghulam Sakhi was heir to a musical lineage that began in the 1860s, when the ruler of Kabul, Amir Sher Ali Khan, brought classically trained musicians from India to perform at his court. Over the next hundred years, Indian musicians thrived there, and Kabul became a center for the performance of North Indian classical music. Musicians in Kabul also cultivated the art of playing the rubab, which was prominent in regional folk music. Today the people of Afghanistan regard the rubab with great pride as their national instrument. Homayun Sakhi currently resides in Fremont, California, a major cultural center of Afghan émigré life, where he opened a school to teach Afghan music to children. His busy performance schedule regularly takes him to cities around the world.
Born in Mumbai in 1972, Rahul Sharma is heir to the Indian classical santur tradition established by his esteemed father, Shiv Kumar Sharma. "It wasn't a preconceived idea that I would become a professional musician," Rahul recounted. "I majored in economics at university, and didn't begin performing publicly on the santur until I was around 22. But once I started, it just took off. In the last dozen years, I've probably released more than 40 albums and had a lot of opportunities to collaborate with international musicians. I've always enjoyed composing. Ever since I was a kid, I played the Casio synthesizer and composed my own tunes. Composing offers freedom from the discipline of classical music. When I was growing up, I was fascinated not just by Indian classical music but by world music and rock. I listened to the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Celtic music, Sting. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's collaborations with Michael Brook inspired me. So I thought, why don't I do something like this with santur? I've always had a desire to experiment. I played with Shakti and
John McLaughlin, and with percussionist Zakir Hussain and mandolin player U. Srinivas. The santur is not just a classical instrument. It has a whole different side. My father established the santur in the classical mode. Now it's ready to head off into new realms. I'm still experimenting."
Salar Nader is one of his generation's leading performers on the tabla. His parents emigrated from Afghanistan to Germany, where Nader was born in 1981. At the age of three, he came to the United States, and at age seven, he began formal tabla study with renowned tabla master Ustad Zakir Hussain. Nader frequently accompanies Homayun Sakhi and other performers of Afghan and North Indian classical music. He is also active as a performer in world percussion and jazz-fusion groups. A resident of San Francisco, Nader recently appeared as an onstage musician in an American theatrical adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's bestselling novel The Kite Runner. In addition to his performance activities, Salar is a devoted teacher of tabla.
Sirojiddin Juraev comes from a lineage of dutar players in his native region of northern Tajikistan. "Both my father and grandfather played the dutar," said Sirojiddin, "and my first ustad (master, or teacher) was my father. Later I studied at the Music College in Khujand and at Khujand University, and after that, at the Academy of Maqam, in Dushanbe, where my ustad was Abduvali Abdurashidov. I listen a lot to old recordings of the great ustads, and when I hear something I really like, I try to learn those tunes. Now I teach dutar in the National Conservatory in Dushanbe. When I feel inspired, I also compose my own music on the dutar. If you listen a lot to old records that are inspiring, there should be an urge to compose. You can't compose from a void. There has to be an inspiration that comes from listening to a master."
Badakhshani setar player Mukhtor Muborakqadamov makes his home in a village near Khorog, Tajikistan, the regional capital of Tajik Badakhshan and Badakhshan's largest city, with a population of around 40,000. "I began playing the setar when I was in eighth grade. I learned by ear from my uncle," said Mukhtor. "I've never learned to read music. I like Indian music and frequently listen to it, so probably that's why my style sounds Indian."
