The World Music Institute Concludes the Masters of Indian Music & Dance Series with USTAD SHAHID PARVEZ KHAN Tonight

The World Music Institute concludes its acclaimed Masters of Indian Music & Dance series with Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan tonight, April 10, 2015 at 8:00 p.m. at Symphony Space.

Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan is a seventh-generation sitar maestro from the illustriousEtawah Gharana (school), a centuries-old musical dynasty dating back to the moghul courts. He learned his craft from his father, Ustad Aziz Khan, and became a child prodigy, debuting at age eight. Khan is lauded for his technical brilliance and innovative genius and is especially praised for the vocal phrasings of his raga ­improvisations. He has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Sangeet Natak Academy Award, Padma Shri. In addition to being an inspiring performer, he is a dedicated guru. He will be joined by Hindole Majumdar on tabla.

MASTERS OF INDIAN
MUSIC & DANCE

The Masters of Indian Music series continues the World Music Institute's long tradition of presenting the finest in Indian classical music, both Hindustani (North India) and Carnatic (South India). Previous concerts in the 2014-15 series included virtuosic vocalist Kaushiki Chakraborty and the famed dance troupe Nrityagram, both presented in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. WMI has been the leading presenter of Indian artists since its founding in 1985; its very first concert featured some of India's most celebrated classical artists, including Lalgudi Jayraman, Maharajapuram Santhanam, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shivkumar Sharma, and Zakir Hussain.

USTAD SHAHID
PARVEZ KHAN

www.shahidparvezkhan.com

Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan is privileged with both belonging to an illustrious musical family, and for achieving success in not only preserving the tradition but in pushing its boundaries to even greater heights of aesthetic beauty. He is one of the most brilliant musical gems of the famous Etawah Gharana and belongs to the seventh generation of this musical lineage. His family has produced the most revered and influential figures in Hindusthani Classical Music including the likes of Sahabdad Khansahab, Imdad Khansahab, Enayet Khansahab, Waheed Khansahab and Vilayat Khansahab.

A very young Shahid Parvez was initiated into the rich music of the Gharana by his illustrious father and Guru Ustad Aziz Khan, a famous musician and a noted composer and the son of the legendary Sitar and Surbahar virtuoso Ustad Waheed Khansahab. As is the custom, Ustad Aziz Khan first initiated his son into vocal music and tabla, before training him on the Sitar over many years with all the intensity and rigor that had made this Gharana famous. The young Shahid Parvez was recognized as a child prodigy and had started performing in public by the time he was only eight years of age. Dogged perseverance and hard work over the years have been rewarded with an extra-ordinary technical prowess and a mastery over 'Layakari'. One of the numerous achievements of Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan is to have mastered both Vocal Music and the 'Tantrakari Baaj' and then fuse them in such a way as to bring this complex amalgam within the easy reach of all.

Few instrumentalists have enjoyed so much of love and admiration as Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan has, from the music loving fraternity worldwide. He is a Top Grade artist of A.I.R. and a recipient of numerous national and international awards including the 'Sur Shringaar', the 'Kumar Gandharva Samman', the"M.L. Koser Award', etc. He is also a recipient of the prestigious "Sangeet Natak Academy Award" of 2006. He has performed in all major musical festivals in India and abroad including the Festival of India held in the US, Europe, USSR, Canada, Middle East, Africa and Australia, enthralling the audience everywhere. With numerous LP records, audio and video cassettes, CDs and DVDs, numerous awards and accolades, and a distinguished performance career in India and around the world, he is widely recognized as one of the greatest sitar-players of the world.

For Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan, the Sitar and Self are identical entities, and music is not just a discipline but life itself - vibrating and pulsating and full of colour. The power of his music is most immediately encountered in the highly charged sound quality he conjures from his Sitar and the sparkling intelligence that is the hallmark of his improvisatory music. By sheer precision and an astute artistic sense he has made for himself a place in the limitless, infinite universe of Indian Classical Music. As the Rajasthan Patrika once said -"After listening to Ustad Shahid Parvez, the future of Sitar is still bright after Pandit Ravi Shankarji."

TICKETS

Tickets for all World Music Institute events are available for purchase online at www.worldmusicinstitute.org, by calling (212) 545-7536, or in person at the WMI Box Office at 101 Lafayette Street, #801.

Student and group discounts are available, as are VIP tickets for select events. Discounts are also available for WMI Friends with memberships starting at $70. WMI Friends enjoy priority seating throughout the season.

ABOUT WMI

www.worldmusicinstitute.org

"a widely copied and influential force in New York cultural circles."
- The New York Times

Founded in 1985 as a not-for-profit, World Music Institute has served as the leading presenter of world music and dance within the United States. For the past 30 years, WMI has built the most comprehensive concert series of diverse music and dance performances, presenting the finest in traditional and contemporary music and dance from around the world. WMI encourages cultural exchange between nations and ethnic groups and collaborates with community organizations and academic institutions in fostering greater understanding of the world's cultural traditions. WMI works extensively with community groups and organizations including Indian, Iranian, Chinese, Korean, Middle Eastern, Latin American, Hungarian, Irish, and Central Asian. This has enabled WMI to be at the forefront of presenting the finest ensembles from these countries.

WMI curates a full season of concerts each year in New York City in venues throughout the city, including Symphony Space, Town Hall, Roulette, Skirball Performing Arts Center at NYU, New York City Center, Le Poisson Rouge, the Rose Theater (Jazz at Lincoln Center), and Carnegie Hall. It has presented more than 1,500 concerts and events featuring artists from more than 100 countries including Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East. Many concerts have been presented as thematic series; these have included Global Salon, The Musical World of Islam, Masters of Indian Music, Dancing The Gods, Africa in the Americas, Music around the Mediterranean, and National Heritage Masters.

In addition to its regular programming, WMI has brought many musical, dance and ritual traditions to the New York or U.S. stage for the first time, including Laotian sung poetry, folk music of Khorason and Bushehr (Iran), songs of the Yemenite Jews, Bardic divas of Central Asia, trance ceremonies from Morocco, music from Madagascar, and Theyyams (masked dances) of Kerala, South India.

Photo Credit: Sana Sohini