Articles from this Taxonomy
Abakis (born Abigail Kiser) is a singer/songwriter living in Port Townsend, Washington, who creates collaborative music that bridges new and old worlds: a delicate blend of classic soul led by powerhouse vocals and Kottke-style fingerpicking guitar. Born and bred in Virginia where she learned to sing jazz in her father’s restaurant, Aba migrated westward to […]
Anil Sunny is a young and promising tabla player from Sialkot, Punjab. He received his training under Ustad Jimi Khan and has been practicing since the age of ten. Anil has performed with leading classical singers and instrumentalists and won a number of accolades, including first prize at a talent competition organized by the Pakistan […]
Danish Khawaja, who plays under the name Fat Bird, is a multi-instrumentalist from Lahore, specializing in guitar. As a 12-year-old, he remembers sitting with older, more seasoned musicians and just listening, absorbing everything he heard and quietly learning. This kind of patient dexterity is now a hallmark of his playing. “My friends were my teachers,” […]
Darbuka Siva is an actor, musician, music producer and a radio jockey based in Chennai, India. Siva started his performing career in 2002 with Oikyotaan, an outfit that experimented with Bengali Baul music. This experience shaped up Siva’s musical approach, inspiring him to go searching for his own sound, which he began to explore with […]
Debasmita Bhattacharya is an accomplished sarod player from Kolkata, West Bengal. She was first inspired to pick up the instrument at age six by her father, Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya, a renowned sarod player. “Being a lady,” she writes, “it was really challenging for me to grab ‘Sarod’ as a classical instrument for my musical journey, […]
Zeerak Ahmed (AKA Slowspin) was born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1990. Ahmed is a mixed media installation/sound/performance artist now based in Karachi. In 2009, she formed a four-person collective, the ‘TBP’, and has been working and exhibiting with them since. After completing her undergrad in Studio Art and Poli Sci, from Hiram College, USA, she […]
Tanzeem Haider is a flute player from Lahore. A barber by day, Tanzeem harbors a remarkable talent for flute, displaying great technique and a fluid, even tone. He comes to us from a scouting mission conducted by Imran Fida, a 2015 Dosti Fellow from Lahore, who was asked to travel to more remote parts of […]
Mohsin Abbas is a vocalist and harmonium player from Gujranwala, Punjab. From a long line of vocalists in his family, Mohsin has gained his incredibly powerful and expressive vocal technique from his training with Ustad Fida Hussain, which started at a young age. When asked what he would do with this opportunity after the program […]
Iftikhar Ali Khan is a santoor player from Rawalpindi, Punjab, who received his training from his father, Haji Hussain, and Ustad Iqbal Hussain. Iftikhar hopes to create an academy where he can train students on the santoor, as the instrument is becoming increasingly more rare. His virtuosic playing, eagerness to improvise in multiple styles, and […]
Kaethe Hostetter is a 5 string electro-acoustic violin player who splits her time between Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and wherever her projects take her. As a child, she was exposed to traditional musics of all kinds – Mexican, Cajun, Balkan, Klezmer, Albanian – and a passion for virtuoso folk music has stayed a theme in her life […]
