Online Recital:
James Pusey – sitar, Yousuf Ali Khan – tabla

The Programme

James Pusey – sitar

Yousuf Ali Khan – tabla

Recorded live at St Bride’s on Tuesday 9th January.

A programme of North Indian Classical Music also referred to as Hindustani Music, which will take the form of a Raga, which literally means colour or mood.

Each Raga has certain notes and key phrases that the musicians improvise with, ultimately hoping to create the mizaj (mood) of the Raga.

The performance will be of an afternoon Raga announced by the artists.

The Artists

James Pusey is a UK-based sitar player of the Etawah/Vilayat Khani Gharana. After discovering the sitar in the early 90’s and a period of study under Ustad Dharambir Singh MBE, James travelled to Mumbai, India to study with Pandit Arvind Parikh, who is regarded as Ustad Vilayat Khan’s senior-most disciple and a leading figure in Hindustani Music.

Fast forward more than 20 years and several study trips to India later, James continues to receive talim – teaching and guidance – and remains one of only a handful of non-Indian students of Pandit Arvind Parikh. James performs and teaches in the UK and abroad.

Because of his exceptional feeling for rhythm, Yousuf Ali Khan‘s teacher, Ustad Adil Hussain, had him concentrate on the tabla. He then studied in Kolkata with Pandit Anil Bhattecherjee of Lucknow Gharawana. Yousuf’s principle study of classical tabla was with Guru Pandit Shankar Gosh of Purab Gharawana in Kolkata, under a Government Scholarship of India.

In 1984 he joined the faculty of the Leicestershire School of Music in Leicester. Yousuf has also been working with The Grand Union Orchestra for the past 25 years, a highly successful multi-cultural musical organisation in the UK.