Season 3 - Episode 2: Li-Hsuan Hsu

Aditya Kalyanpur is a virtuoso tabla player based in India and the United States.

In this episode, Aditya shares the story of his study with legendary North Indian classical music master Ustad Allarahka Qureshi, also known as Alla Rakha, who first became known to Westerners as Ravi Shankar’s drummer. Aditya tells of his close relationship with Alla Rakha, or Abbaji, and his equally talented sons Taufiq Qureshi and Zakir Hussein, including the ganda bandhan ceremony they had when he was ten years old.

We discuss the differences and similarities from traditional guru -disciple training (gurukul), training in Alla Rakha’s evening school, and online classes today. Aditya also talks about the challenges and pleasures of touring, the many responsibilities of a professional musician, and his dedication (shraddha) to practice (riyaz). We recorded the interview at the beginning of the COVID-19 quarentine, so you will hear us speak about that as well.

Aditya’s website is: https://adityakalyanpur.com/

Here is a short composition played by Aditya Kalyanpur and sitar player Niladri Kumar

Here is his 2019 Melbourne International Jazz Day performance with Herbie Hancock

Aditya spoke of:

Legendary vocalist Dr. Prabha Atre

Master violinists Dr. T.N. Krishnan and Dr. N. Rajam

Fusion artist Abhijit Pohankar

The outro music on this episode is “Raga Jhinjhoti” performed by Aditya Kalyanpur and sitar player Pandit Nayan Ghosh, from Pt. Ghosh’s Enchanting Sitar album

Art Lives Theme and Incidental music composed by Nicholaus Meyers, and performed by Nicholaus and Ken Jimenez. Art Lives Logo created by Eduardo Moreno. Art Lives is available here, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher.