Zakir Hussain and Rahul Sharma

Indian musicians Zakir Hussain and Rahul Sharma are masters of the tabla and the santoor respectively. Zakir Hussain is an international phenomenon. A classical tabla virtuoso of the highest order, his consistently brilliant and exciting performances have not only established him as a national treasure in his own country, India, but gained him worldwide fame. The favorite accompanist for many of India's greatest classical musicians and dancers, he has also played with John McLaughlin, Mickey Hart, George Harrison, YoYo Ma, Joe Henderson, Van Morrison, Airto Moreira, Pharoah Sanders, and the Kodo drummers. His music and extraordinary contribution to the music world were honored in April, 2009, with four widely-heralded and sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall's Artist Perspective series. He was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship. Rahul Sharma plays the 100 stringed Kashmiri santoor. Having studied with his father, the famed Shivkumar Sharma, and Guru Pandit Shivkumar sharma, Rahul has taken the santoor into world music with various collaborations and in some 60 albums. He collaborated with Grammy award winning American saxophonist KennyG on an album which reached number 2 on Billboard world charts and number 4 on Board Smooth jazz charts. Rahul also collaborated with Grammy winning electronica group Deep Forest and composed the music for the Hindi feature film Mujhse Dosti Karoge, for which he received the award in the 'Best Debut-Music Director' category at the 2002 ZEE Bollywood Music Awards. MUSIC LINKS, NEWS, REVIEWS, & MORE: Zakir Hussain Website, Rahul Sharma Website  VIDEOS: