November 2, 1998

Ghazal Ensemble to Perform at Middlebury College

Center for the Arts on Nov. 11

“A rare collaboration involving two prominent

artists from India and one from Iran … results in stunning

improvisations. … The combination fuses the best musical

traditions of two countries.” —San Francisco Sunday Examiner

& Chronicle

The Ghazal Ensemble, a group of three master musicians

blending the historic traditions of Persia and North India, will

perform on Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall

of the Middlebury College Center for the Arts on Route 30.

The performance offers the opportunity to hear musicians

standing at the forefront of their respective traditions. Young

virtuoso Shujaat Husain Khan plays the North Indian instrument,

the sitar, which is familiar to many Westerners, as is the tabla,

played by Swapan Chaudhuri, who has appeared in sold-out performances

at Middlebury with Maestro Ali Akbar Khan. Referring to the third

member of the ensemble, The New York Times said of Persian spike

violin player Kayhan Kalhor, “the reedy scrape of bowed

fiddle creeps out stealthily like a human voice, a rough and ancient

sound against the metallic ringing of the sitar.”

“Arguably the year’s best world music album,”

said The Village Voice of Ghazal’s 1997 recording, “Music

from the Silk Road.”

Indian classical music, with its highly developed

structures of raga (melody) and tala (rhythm), has

attracted a wide range of Western classical, jazz and pop musicians.

Much less known in the West-but no less expressive and vast-is

Persian classical music. Among the most highly developed and sophisticated

musical systems in the world, both traditions share numerous historical

and conceptual relationships. Most notably, both Persian and Indian

music rely on complex improvisation within traditional forms,

making each performance a unique experience.

Tickets for this Middlebury College Concert Series

performance are $9.00 general admission and $7.00 for senior citizens.

A pre-performance dinner at 6 p.m. at the Rehearsals Cafe in the

Center for the Arts is also available. To order tickets or make

dinner reservations, please call the College box office at 802-443-6433.