Artist description Rahul is an Indian Sitar player studied with Allaudin Khan performing on these CD's in the classical North Indian tradition. Ron Wagner is an American born tabla player studied with Taranath Rao providing the accompaniment.@

Music Style Indian Classical

Musical Influences East Indian Traditional

Artist History RAHUL SAKYAPUTRA (formerly known as Rahul Sariputra), a renowned sitarist, studied with Baba Allauddin Khan, the greatest Indian musician and preceptor of this century. He was given the international award known as the Dawn of Enlightenment by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s worldwide organization for Transcendental Meditation. Sakyaputra was the first sitarist to be sponsored by Canada's prestigious "Jeunesses Musicales", a Canadian program for musicians. Sakyaputra has performed in concert halls internationally. He performed in the World Expo and International Music Festival in Denmark; at various universities in Canada; in one of India's finest concert halls, the Birla Theater in Bombay; in Bombay's Nataraj Theater; in Bombay’s famous Shanmukhananda Hall; for a special concert in 1988 for His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Bombay; for the 25th anniversary of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; for Tibetan Week celebrations in Flagstaff, Arizona; for a three day concert and lecture series at Pepperdine Univer sity in Malibu, California; and countless other venues. In Canada Rahul scored music for the film Soon, produced by the Canada Council and Computer Research Group of the University of Toronto, as well as a student project at Harvard University, and a Fre nch film. In the U.S. he scored the music for the documentary film India Speaks by Pola Lee Haller which was broadcast on the PBS network. Rahul has frequently played for radio and television. He performed many times on several KPFK radio shows in Holly wood and co-hosted, with Dr. John Schneider, the program The Global Village; he played on KCRW radio in Santa Monica, California; CBC Radio in Montreal, Canada; on WBAI radio in New York City; and many others. Television appearances have included the television production of Reflections of India on the program Visions from New York; Bombay's prestigious TV program Prabhat; the series Music to See, on the French-English Network; with Zakir Hussain on KQED’s Open Studio in San Francisco; and appearances on TV and radio in Denmark, Sweden and Belgium. Rahul’s classical recordings include an album for Loyola Campus of Concordia University in Montreal; Nirvana with Pranesh Khan on tabla; East Meets East with Japanese Shakuhachi maestro Masayuki Koga; Footpri nts in the Sky with Zakir Hussain on tabla; and Spheres of Music. Rahul has also played with western musicians on various recording and concert projects. He performed with Patrick Moraze of The Moody Blues; he appeared on cablevision and recorded with G erman pop star Christian Anders; he recorded Samadhi with Ryugen Watanabe on synthesizers; and he recorded Inner Wonderland with Patrick Morris on synthesizers. Rahul has frequently played private home concerts including one at the home of Mr. Kurt Russe l and Ms. Goldie Hawn. In addition to being an outstanding musician, Rahul offers a scholarly and philosophical side to his music, a presentation which deeply involves the listener. His pre- concert talk on the third volume of this CD series is an exampl e of his approach to performing. Rahul is also an accomplished painter with a unique style of depicting scenes from ancient India in watercolor. RON WAGNER came to California after seven years of study with Buffalo Philharmonic percussionist John Rowlan d, and four years of study on full scholarship at the prestigious Eastman School of Music with professor John Beck. He was the drummer for the jazz fusion group Auracle with whom he recorded two albums on Chrysalis Records and toured internationally inclu ding the Montreux Jazz Festival and Frankfurt Jazz Festival. In the years that followed he recorded and performed both on drums and percussion with L. Subramanium, Larry Coryell, Peter Cetera, Steve Kujala, Chick Corea, Strunz and Farah, and Ottmar Liebe rt, traveling throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Russia, India, Australia and New Zealand. He has played on commercials and TV/film soundtracks including Salaam Bombay, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Fanta sy Island, Murder She Wrote, The Equalizer, and others. Ron began his study of ethnic percussion instruments when he began a serious study of tablas and the complex rhythms of Indian music with Harihar Rao. After three years he became a private disciple of the great tabla master Pandit Taranath Rao, continuing until Taranath’s death twelve years later. Taranath’s unique style incorporates complex rhythmic compositions and rare taals which were originally played on the pakawaj. The tabla solo heard on th e first volume of this CD series, played in Nakshatra Taal of 27 beats, exemplifies this style. In addition to accompanying Rahul, Ron has performed on tabla with Ashish Khan, Aloke Das Gupta, Sumita Kundu, and other Indian musicians. Brazilian maestro Moacir Santos introduced Ron to the sophisticated rhythms of Brazil. In the years that followed, singers Kenya, Eliana Estevao, Claudya, Sonia Santos, percussionist Junior Homrich (music composer for The Emerald Forest), keyboardists Marcos Ariel, Antonio Adolfo, and guitarist-songwriter Geraldo Azavedo all involved Ron on both drums and percussion in their projects. Beginning with the Avaz Dance Company, Ron began a long foray into Middle Eastern drums. He performs solos on Doiras (frame drums from Uzbek istan) and has played Egyptian, Turkish, Armenian, Persian, and Central Asian drums with a variety of musicians and artists from the Middle Eastern community as well as studying the art of Arabic drums with Souhail Kaspar. Ron has written music in a vari ety of styles. He composed rainforest music and African style music for Killer Tracks Music Productions. The Goldhil Home Video Belly Dance Fitness Workout with Veena and Neena contains two hours of Ron’s middle eastern music, which was also released on C D under the title The Sensual Art of Bellydance. His music for theater, including the children’s show Flower Stories and the theater production The Dance Dreamer, has shown his own unique writing style. Ron also composes music for Rhythmic Visions, a dance and percussion company founded with dancer Emily Mayne. Ron is endorsed by Paiste Cymbals and LP percussion.

Group Members Rahul Sakyaputra-Sitar and Ron Wagner-Tabla

Instruments Sitar and Tabla

Albums Live Concerts in Los Angeles Vol 1-3

Location Los Angeles, California - USA

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