A Hundred Strings in Oxford: Two Strings, One Pulse

Adnan Khan on sitar,Vinay Desai on santoor and Ustad Akram Khan on tabla at the Holywell Music Room,part of our tour A Hundred Strings tour On 18 November, we return to the Holywell Music Room with A Hundred Strings in Oxford: Two Strings, One Pulse, a year after Raga Unison brought bansuri and tabla to the same room. Three musicians this time in two sessions, and two ways of playing a raga on strings. Adnan Khan plays sitar in the gayaki ang, the approach that shapes the instrument after the singing voice. He took his first lessons from his grandfather, the late Ustad Zafar Ahmed Khan, and trains with his father, the sitar player Ustad Saeed Khan. Vinay Desai plays the santoor, Kashmir's hundred-stringed instrument, as a direct disciple of Padma Vibhushan Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. The sitar is plucked and slides between notes. The santoor is struck and cannot slide, so it moves in runs. The two instruments share a raga and take different routes through it. Ustad Akram Khan plays tabla for both halves. He is of the seventh generation of the Ajrada Gharana, learned from Ustad Niazu Khan, and teaches more than fifteen of the gharana's classic kaydas. Doors open at 6.45 pm and the music starts at 7 pm. Full running order to follow.