Interview: Santoor Player RAHUL SHARMA on playing with Kenny G

Kalyanpour

Indian classical santoor player Rahul Sharma, needs no introduction. Born in the illustrious family of Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, who is credited with making the santoor, a mainstream classical instrument, Rahul has been impressively carrying on the legacy of his father.

The Sangeet Natak Academy Award winner, the musician was recently in the US on a tour where he teamed up with tabla player Aditya Kalyanpur. Rahul has brought santoor to the world stage and has collaborated with Kenny G and also with Grammy winning electronica group, Deep Forest. He has also worked with pianist Richard Clayderman and keybordist Kersi Lord.

BWW spoke to Rahul just after his big US tour on fusion music and his future projects

BWW: You have collaborated with international musicians such as Richard Clayderman, Kersi Lord. You have also launched Namastey with Kenny G. Talk to us in detail about these compositions and why you feel it was important to bring two different styles of music together?

RS: Well, till date I have done more than 60 albums and half of them are probably classical- rest fusion and collaborations .I was personally a big fan of Richard Clayderman, grammy winning saxophonist KennyG and also grammy winning French electronic group Deep Forest. hence it was always in my interest to work with musicians whose whose style I liked, and luckily I happened to be at the right place at the right time. It was great to collaborate with them an many others because i was also the composer of albums and all these artists were playing my tunes . Apart from the fact that these albums became popular, we also perform a couple of times in different parts of the world. In the end its always a humbling experience for me to collaborate with such fine artists.

BWW: Tell us a bit about your recent music projects?

RS: i have been touring a lot last year i was touring the US on a 12 concert tour with world renowned tabla maestro Ustad Zakir hussain and then there were several concerts in India. I am also currently working on a new age -chill out album with an EDM musician from the UK - Marc JB . Along with that being the face of Taj Mahal tea keeps me busy with AD commercial's for TV, etc. I am also looking forward to performing at the Rudoistadt fedtival in Germany in July

BWW: Santoor is a folk instrument, how do you want to popularize folk music in the world?

RS: Rudoistadt Festival in Thuringia Germany is a folk roots and World music festival and we will be performing Indian classical and folk oriented music. Its one of the biggest folk- world music fest in Europe. When I am playing in different genres or collaborating on stage or on an album , i always prefer to be the composer and so far in all my collabs i have been composer. This helps me design the sound and style which is not just suitable for the santoor but also the collaborative instrument , inorder to make it more cohesive and the idea is that it should just be an amalgamation of east and west yet the production should be on an international level. Performing and collaborating live on stage is more spontaneous and depending on the artist the innovations have to be done respectfully giving equal opportunities.

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