I performed a tabla duet in Teentaal (16 beat cycle) with my father Rajen Sukhadia at an event organized by www.sarodsitar.com on January 12, 2012. Sri Gaurang Doshi facilitated the event.

“This was the first time we played tabla classically together together for an audience. learning the same material and presenting it together. He has played such an important role in my development as a musician and human being, and it was an honor to share the stage with him. Here, we start with a kaida taught to him by his Guru, Gaurang Doshi, and I end with a kaida taught to me by my Guru, Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri.”

Photographs by Neelanjana Banerjee

About the artists:

Rajen Sukhadia
Rajen began his musical training in vocal and tabla at the at the age of eleven in Mehemedabad, Gujarat. He began his studies with Sri Raghubhai Pahadwala of the Ajrada Gharana, and then continued his vocal training with Srimati Kumudani Rathore of the Maihar Gharana. At present, he is studying tabla with Sri Gaurang Doshi, who is a sarode exponent of the Maihar Gharana. For the past 15 years, Rajen has been teaching north Indian classical vocal and tabla in the greater Greensboro North Carolina area.

Robin Sukhadia
A Master in Fine Arts graduate from the World Music program at the California Institute of the Arts, Robin Sukhadia is a disciple of tabla maestro Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri. Robin’s special focus on the musical traditions and rhythms of south Asia informs his approach to musical arrangement and composition on a wide range of concert, film, and album productions. For the past seven years, Robin has traveled internationally on behalf of Project Ahimsa , an organization committed to empowering impoverished youth through music education. He performs and teaches extensively, in both classical and contemporary contexts, and has developed innovative music education programs at the Mahatma Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, the Weill Institute at Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Machine Project in Los Angeles and the Sangati Center in San Francisco. In 2010, Robin was awarded a Fulbright Senior Research Award to expand his work with music education in India. Learn more at www.tablapusher.com.
I performed a tabla duet in Teentaal (16 beat cycle) with my father Rajen Sukhadia at an event organized by www.sarodsitar.com on January 12, 2012. Sri Gaurang Doshi facilitated the event.

“This was the first time we played tabla classically together together for an audience. learning the same material and presenting it together. He has played such an important role in my development as a musician and human being, and it was an honor to share the stage with him. Here, we start with a kaida taught to him by his Guru, Gaurang Doshi, and I end with a kaida taught to me by my Guru, Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri.”

Photographs by Neelanjana Banerjee

About the artists:

Rajen Sukhadia
Rajen began his musical training in vocal and tabla at the at the age of eleven in Mehemedabad, Gujarat. He began his studies with Sri Raghubhai Pahadwala of the Ajrada Gharana, and then continued his vocal training with Srimati Kumudani Rathore of the Maihar Gharana. At present, he is studying tabla with Sri Gaurang Doshi, who is a sarode exponent of the Maihar Gharana. For the past 15 years, Rajen has been teaching north Indian classical vocal and tabla in the greater Greensboro North Carolina area.

Robin Sukhadia
A Master in Fine Arts graduate from the World Music program at the California Institute of the Arts, Robin Sukhadia is a disciple of tabla maestro Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri. Robin’s special focus on the musical traditions and rhythms of south Asia informs his approach to musical arrangement and composition on a wide range of concert, film, and album productions. For the past seven years, Robin has traveled internationally on behalf of Project Ahimsa , an organization committed to empowering impoverished youth through music education. He performs and teaches extensively, in both classical and contemporary contexts, and has developed innovative music education programs at the Mahatma Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, the Weill Institute at Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Machine Project in Los Angeles and the Sangati Center in San Francisco. In 2010, Robin was awarded a Fulbright Senior Research Award to expand his work with music education in India. Learn more at www.tablapusher.com.

Music education has a profound impact on the creative expression and communication of blind children. At a school in Gandhinagar for children who are both blind and come from impoverished backgrounds, children receive musical instruction for two hours each day. Over the past the 8 years, I have been working closely with Project Ahimsa and the outstanding music teacher Tejas Parmar to build this unique music program.

The staff believes that music education has played a major role in enabling the school to achieve an astonishing 90% graduation and retention rate. In October 2011, legendary world music act Rupa & the April Fishes visited the Blind School for a day of interaction and performance alongside the children at the Blind School.

Learn more at:

www.projectahimsa.org
www.theaprilfishes.com

Video edited by: Robin Sukhadia (Project Ahimsa International Grants Director)
Video Shot by: Neelanjana Banerjee & Donny Marya.

On June 19, 2011, Bandish Projekt (Mayur Narvekar) and I linked up via Skype to showcase the history and repertoire of tabla, the drums of north India to a riveted audience at the Indian Summer Festival in Leicester, UK. The session included a live improvisation on kaidas or compositions and a discussion on where tabla is today.

About the artists:

Bandish Projekt / Mayur Narvekar www.bandishprojekt.com
BANDISH PROJEKT is Mayur Narvekar, a Composer, Producer, Dj, Remixer, Performer and a multi-instrumentalist.’ Bandish’ in its Indian classical connotation means “composition”, while Projekt reflects its innate extermination. Like a creeper and a tree, the music is the symbiotic conjoining of the sounds folk music fused with electronic or classical Indian ragas entwined into trio hop. BANDISH PROJEKT fused melodies of yore with IDM (Intelligent dance music). 2010 marks the year when BANDISH PROJEKT released its new album ‘CORREKT’ and collaborates with the urbane performer to add new dimensions to its promising musical compendium. Also releases “BROWN SKIN BEAUTY ” New single from Bandish Projekt feat. Last Mango In Paris both on Bheja fry Records.

Tablapusher / Robin Sukhadia www.tablapusher.com
A Master in Fine Arts graduate from the World Music program at the California Institute of the Arts, Robin Sukhadia has been studying tabla (classical north Indian drums) under Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri at the California Institute of the Arts and the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California. For the past seven years, Robin has traveled internationally on behalf of Project Ahimsa, an organization committed to empowering impoverished youth through music education. In 2010, Robin was awarded a Fulbright Senior Research Award to expand his work with music education in India.

Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri at LACMA Part 1 from Distortion Productions on Vimeo.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art — An epic exhibition India’s Fabled City: The Art of Courtly Lucknow (December 12, 2010 – February 27, 2011) culminated in a special interactive tabla performance featuring Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri of the Lucknow Gharana. Held on February 24, 2011 and moderated by Fulbright Scholar Robin Sukhadia, this multimedia/instructional presentation showcased historical research, archival images and live tabla performance. They chronicle how Lucknow’s culture brought together the best living musicians, poets and arts patrons of the day to further evolve the tradition of the extraordinary percussive instrument of the north Indian classical music tradition.

In this special one hour program produced by Distortion Productions, Swapanji elaborates on his tabla lineage which is traced to the courts of Lucknow rulers, synthesizing a wide range of other drumming traditions to become what it is today. He also discusses the role of British colonial destruction of Lucknow, and its consequential impact on the spread of tabla and classical Indian music beyond Lucknow’s borders into north India and the world.

RCFC (Rehabilitation Center for Children) provides comprehensive surgery, prosthetics and physical therapy for over 500 poor children from West Bengal and Bihar each year, free of cost. Some of the children stay for over 2 years here as they undergo slow and painful corrective surgery. But what is most remarkable, is that every child walks out of the hospital after their stay on their own. Music plays a major role in their healing and empowerment…

Beyond the Stage: Applying Music as a tool for Empowerment and Healing

Interactive Session led by Robin Sukhadia

ITC Sangeet Research Academy
November 18, 2011
2 – 4 PM |  FREE

The application of music as a healing modality is receiving more attention throughout India and the world as a result of the work of a wide range of Music Therapists and Music Educators. These innovative individuals are increasingly applying their training in classical and non-classical Indian (both Carnatic and Hindustani) and world music to empower children and adults suffering from a wide range of afflictions. South Asia’s deep musical traditions are finding new power as a tool to empower underserved communities.

Join Robin Sukhadia, a Fulbright Scholar based at ITC SRA, for an afternoon discussion/presentation designed to engage SRA scholars and Gurus in a dialogue focused on the following questions:

• What are current examples of effective applications of Music Therapy and Music Education in India?
• What is music therapy? How does it differ from music education?
• How can musicians who are gifted as healers/teachers think beyond the performance stage?
• What can India offer the global community of Music Therapists?

ITC Sangeet Research Academy
www.itcsra.org
1, Netaji Subash Chandra Bose Road
Tollygunge | Kolkata- 700 040

Fusion or Confusion? Examining World Music Today
An Interactive Session with Robin Sukhadia

Kolkata International Music Festival
November 20, 2011 5pm
Weaver Studios Kolkata | FREE

Who are the current pioneers blending traditional world music with contemporary pop and electronic music? How are classical traditions of north and south Indian music finding new audiences via its inclusion in contemporary forms of music?

Join World Musician and Fulbright Scholar Robin Sukhadia for an audio overview of major trends in world music, with a special emphasis on how Indian classical music is being integrated into jazz, Latin percussion, western classical music, African music, pop music and hip hop. The interactive session will feature an open discussion on fusion and confusion musical experiments by artists including Zakir Hussain, John MacLaughlin, Peter Gabriel, Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, Bjork, Talvin Singh, Nitin Sawhney, Ali Akbar Khan, and MIA.

I’m thrilled to be accompanying the legendary Rupa & the April Fishes at the Rajasthan International Folk Festival on October 15, 2011! Begun in 2007, the Jodhpur RIFF brings together more than 250 Musicians and performing artists from across Rajasthan and around the world to celebrate their musical heritage and create new sounds through innovative collaborations, for five days in October each year. Timed to coincide with the brightest full moon of the year in north India, Sharad Poornima, Jodhpur RIFF features a series of spectacular concerts and events based in and around Mehrangarh Fort – voted “Asia’s Best Fortress” by Times Magazine.

On October 2 – 4, 2011, I’ll be leading a special session at Bandish Beat Faktory examining how to use Ableton Live to manipulate natural sounds and existing media to create new sonic textures and atmosphere. Specifically, I’ll be sharing how to converge the power of Ableton Live + simple tools (mobile phones, wave recorders, the web) + media (mp3s, interviews, sound from YouTube clips, noise) to create atmosphere and wholly original music. Learn more / Sign up at www.bandishprojekt.com