ZAKIR HUSSAIN ---TABLA SOLO

Zakir Hussain
Born in 1951 in Mumbai, Zakir Hussain is the most renowned tabla player in the world, as was his father Ustad Allah Rakha, before him. Two decades beyond Allah Rakha's passing, Hussain continues to have strong spiritual ties to his mentor. A child prodigy, he was performing in concerts before he was in his teens and touring in the U.S. in his twenties. His two brothers, Taufiq Qureshi and Fazal Qureshi, are also noted percussionists. Hussain earned a Ph.D. in music from the University of Washington. He has won numerous national awards in his native country, a National Endowment for the Arts award in the U.S., and two Grammy Awards. In 2005, he was named an Old Dominion Fellow by the Humanities Council at Princeton University, where he was a music professor.