”RAPTUROUS! Part devotional, part visceral, and deeply soulful, this music revels in a sacred space!”
Experience a night of magical Indo-Persian fusion performed by the Grammy-nominated Ghazal Ensemble, featuring Iranian master Kayhan Kalhor (kamancheh), Indian virtuoso Shujaat Husain Khan (sitar), and acclaimed Indian tabla player Sandeep Das. This highly influential collaboration has dazzled audiences worldwide with their blend of two classical music traditions that have been intertwined historically, geographically, and culturally for centuries: the Persian dastgah and North Indian raga.
15 years after Ghazal created their Silk Road series (before Yo-Yo Ma!), they are back on the road after a long absence. Shujaat Husain Khan, one of today’s greatest North Indian artists, represents the seventh generation of illustrious musicians in the Imdad Khan gharana (musical lineage) which includes his father the great sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan. Kayhan Kalhor, a creative force in today’s international music scene, is considered the preeminent ambassador of Persian music. He is known for stirring improvisations, exquisite compositions, and extensive collaborations with artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Brooklyn Rider, Kronos Quartet and Osvaldo Golijov.
ABOUT KAYHAN KALHOR www.kayhankalhor.net
Kayhan Kalhor is an internationally acclaimed virtuoso on the kamancheh (Persian spiked fiddle). His performances of Persian music and his many collaborations have attracted audiences around the globe. Born in Tehran, Iran, he began his musical studies at the age of seven. At thirteen, he was invited to work with the National Orchestra of Radio and Television of Iran, where he performed for five years. When he was seventeen he began working with the Shayda Ensemble of the Chavosh Cultural Center, the most prestigious arts organization in Iran at the time. He has traveled extensively throughout Iran, studying the music of its many regions.
Kayhan has toured the world as a soloist with various ensembles and orchestras including the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de Lyon. He is co-founder of the renowned ensembles Dastan, Ghazal: Persian & Indian Improvisations and Masters of Persian Music. Kayhan has composed works for Iran’s most renowned vocalists Mohammad Reza Shajarian and Shahram Nazeri and has also performed and recorded with Iran’s greatest instrumentalists. Kayhan has composed music for television and film and was most recently featured on the soundtrack of Francis Ford Copolla’s Youth Without Youth in a score that he collaborated on with Osvaldo Golijov. In 2004, Kayhan was invited by American composer John Adams to give a solo recital at Carnegie Hall as part of his Perspectives Series and in the same year he appeared on a double bill at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, sharing the program with the Festival Orchestra performing the Mozart Requiem.
Kayhan is an original member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project and his compositions Blue as the Turquoise Night of Neyshabur, Silent City and Mountains Are Far Away, appear on all three of the Ensemble’s albums. Three of his recent recordings have been nominated for Grammys, Faryad, Without You and The Rain. His new CD Silent City, with the innovative ensemble Brooklyn Rider, was released on the World Village label in September 2008 to critical acclaim.
ABOUT SHUJAAT KHAN www.shujaatkhan.com
Shujaat Husain Khan is one of the greatest North Indian classical musicians of his generation. He belongs to the Imdad Khan gharana of the sitar and his style of playing sitar, known as the gayaki ang, is imitative of the subtleties of the human voice. Shujaat Khan’s musical pedigree extends seven generations. He is the son and disciple of the great sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan, and his grandfather, Ustad Inayat Khan. Khan’s musical career began at the age of three when he began practicing on a specially made small sitar. By the age of six, he was recognized as a child prodigy and began giving public performances.
Shujaat Khan has performed at all the prestigious music festivals in India and has performed throughout Asia, Africa, North America, and Europe. Audiences around the world are captivated by his unique style of sitar playing, his exceptional voice, and his intuitive and spontaneous approach to rhythm. In 2007, he was the featured artist at musical concerts celebrating India’s 50th anniversary of independence at Carnegie Hall in New York. Khan was also the sole artist representing India in a special performance at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in Geneva commemorating India’s independence the same year. Alongside his many notable performances, Khan has been a regularly featured artist at prestigious concert halls including Royal Albert Hall in London, Royce Hall in Los Angeles, and Congress Hall in Berlin.
Shujaat Khan has also collaborated with different genres of music. The Rain, an album featuring Shujaat Khan and the Indo-Persian Ghazal ensemble. In 2010, Shujaat Khan worked with Asha Bhosle in releasing Naina Lagai Ke. Their album was selected as a “Top Ten Best New Album Release” by the editor of Songlines Magazine and was featured in the magazine’s exclusive “Top of the World CD” in 2011.