Afghan Rubab Master HOMAYOUN SAKHI Opens A World In Trance Festival

A World in Trance, now in its fourth edition, has been host to some of the world's most captivating music, bringing people together in search of enlightenment and spirituality. This year's festival opens with a rare NY appearance of Homayoun Sakhi, who has established an international reputation as the outstanding Afghan rubab player of his generation. A master of the rubab, a skin-faced lute that is revered as the national instrument of Afghanistan, he performs the music of Afghanistan, which is rich in traditions that span the Middle East, Central Asia and North India. He will be joined by Nitin Mitta, one of the most sought after tabla players of his generation.

Homayoun Sakhi was born in Kabul in 1976 into one of Afghanistan's leading musical families, and studied with his father, Ghulam Sakhi - heir to a musical lineage that began in the 1860s - in the traditional form of apprenticeship known as ustad-shagird. In 1992, due to the political chaos and violence in Afghanistan, his family moved to Peshawar, Pakistan, where he became a popular performer. In 2002, he immigrated to the US, settling in Fremont, California, which has the largest concentration of Afghans in the US. He became a leader of the local musical community, establishing a music school, recording popular Afghan songs, and becoming a sought-after performer. He has composed for the Kronos Quartet and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and appeared at prestigious venues and festivals, including Carnegie Hall, Paris's Theatre de la Ville, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music.

Nitin Mitta has performed worldwide with some of India's most celebrated classical musicians and vocalists, including Pandit Jasraj, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Ustad Shahid Parvez, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, and Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi. He has also collaborated with pianist Vijay Iyer and electric guitarist R. Prasanna, as well as with vocalist Kirin Ahluwahlia, exploring jazz with Indian music. Born and raised in Hyderabad, India, he trained with Pandit G. Satyanarayana and Pandit Arvind Mulgaonkar, both disciples of Ustad Amir Hussain Khan, the legendary doyen of the Farukkhabad school of tabla. Since moving to the US in 2002, he has appeared at many prestigious venues, including Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Smithsonian, and Royce Hall. Now a resident of New York City, he is actively involved in teaching, performing, recording, and conducting tabla workshops.

Upcoming concerts in the A World in Trance festival feature classical Indian music with sitar (lute) maestro Ustad Shahid Parvez accompanied by tabla player Nitin Mitta (Sat Apr 28), and mystical Persian music with ney (flute) virtuoso Hossein Omoumi in a rare NY performance (Sun Apr 30).

This festival is supported in part with public funding provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State legislature. Additional funding is provided by the New York Community Trust.

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