Arjun Verma
Arjun has been studying and playing Classical Indian Music on the sitar for 19 years. Training first under his father, sitarist Roop Verma, Arjun learned for 8 years with the world-renowned maestro, Ali Akbar Khan. In addition to assistant teaching at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, Arjun has performed across the United States and also in Geneva, Switzerland and Prague, Czech Republic. In 2007, Arjun was awarded a Shenson Fellowship by the San Francisco Foundation to support his continued training at the Ali Akbar College.
Nilan Chaudhuri
Nilan Chaudhuri is the twenty year old son of tabla maestro Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri. He received his first tabla lesson from his father, at the age of five. When he was eleven, he performed his first tabla solo at the Ali Akbar College of Music, in San Rafael, California -receiving blessings from Ustad Ali Akbar Khansahib- and that same year was privileged to become Khansahib’s ganda bandhan disciple. Since 2005, Nilan has accompanied his father in concert both in the United States, and in India, for such prestigious organizations as Basant Bahar, the Music Circle, and Sabrang Music. Currently, Nilan resides in the Bay Area and is a student at San Francisco State University, as well as the Ali Akbar College of Music, where he continues to study rigorously with his father, in the Lucknow Gharana style of tabla playing.
HOSTS VICTORIA & JOANNA MANQUEROS (Music of the World)