Kamal Ahmad: A Program of Morning Ragas

Kamal Ahmad is a sitar player and teacher of raga music. He started his musical journey learning tabla before being initiated in the art of sitar playing by his elder sister. It would not be long before he began to seriously pursue his musical studies under sarod maestro Arnab Chakrabarty. Soon after, Chakrabarty introduced Kamal to his would-be gurus, sitar virtuoso Vinayak Chittar and scholar-vocalist Pandit Arijit Mahalanabis, under both of whom Kamal continues to study. In spite of having taken to music at a fairly advanced age, Kamal compensated for a delayed start with an acutely critical approach to learning, which allowed him to identify and pursue an efficient path to honing his abilities. As such, Kamal maintains his critical endeavors in his practice, performance, and teaching of music, in an attempt to constantly improve at each. Rahim Zalal is a tabla player in the Farrukhabad tradition and a disciple of Pandit Anindo Chatterjee. Originally from Raleigh, North Carolina, he is now based in the Bay Area. He most recently performed a solo recital in Los Angeles. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RootStock Arts and Bird & Beckett co-present Morning Ragas, a four-month series of Hindustani and Carnatic Classical Music duo concerts that take place from 9-11 a.m. on the last Sunday of September, October, November and December.