8. The Performers on the Web Site

Shubha Sankaran studied instrumental music with Ustad Imrat Khan and vocal music with the late Pandit Shrikant Bakre. She has performed on surbahar throughout the United States, including at Lincoln Center in New York, and in concert and in radio and television broadcasts in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Morocco, and Central and South America. During 2001, in addition to presenting concerts in Delhi, Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, she performed in London and completed a national concert tour of Rumania. She has taught privately since 1979, and in 1998-99 she was Visiting Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1994 and again in 1999, she was recognized for her surbahar performance by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. She has composed and performed music for original dance pieces choreographed by Chitra Krishnamurti and Tehreema Mitha; for the award-winning National Public Radio series "Passages to India"; and for the award-winning 1997 BBC documentary "Monsoon" (available on CD). She has also been featured on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." For further information, see www.surbahar.com

Humayun Khan, a young Afghan-American, has studied Hindustani classical vocal music with Shubha Sankaran, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, and Pandit Vijay Kichlu. He has performed as a vocalist, and has accompanied a variety of prominent Indian and Pakistani vocalists, in concerts in the U.S., Europe, and Morocco, and has appeared as vocal soloist or accompanist on a number of CD's. In addition to his work in Indian music, he also sings Persian classical ghazals.

Manik Munde is one of India's leading pakhawaj masters. Born in Maharashtra, he studied with Bhakta Ganesh Anna Chaudhari, Pandit Mahant Amarnath Mishra, and Govind Deshmukh. He has accompanied all of the major artists, both instrumental and vocal, in the ancient tradition of Dhrupad, and has appeared in a wide range of CD recordings. He first visited the U.S. with Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar and Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar during the Festival of India in 1985. He accompanied Uday Bhawalkar and Shubha Sankaran on a 1999 American tour and performed again in the U.S. with Shubha Sankaran in 2000, at which time the recordings for this Web site were made. He currently lives in Bombay. For further information, see www.surbahar.com

Brian Q. Silver, after graduating from Harvard College in 1964, went to India under a Fulbright grant to learn sitar with the late Ustad Ghulamhusain Khan of the Indore gharana. He returned to the U.S. in 1966 and has since appeared in concert and in radio and television broadcasts in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Morocco, Great Britain, Rumania, Canada, Central and South America, and throughout the United States. In 1988 he was awarded the honorary title Khan Sahib by the All Pakistan Music Conference, and was given that organization's 1989 gold medal for performance. In 1991 and again in 1996, he was recognized for his sitar performance by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and has taught Urdu language and literature, Indian music, and South Asian culture at the University of Minnesota, the University of Chicago, Harvard University, and most recently at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He is currently Chief of the Voice of America's Urdu Service in Washington, as well as founder and Executive Director of International Music Associates. For further information, see www.surbahar.com

-- Brian Q. Silver