pacifictabla.com events 2003

July 26, 2003

Vishal's students give student recital

Today six of Vishal's students gave a recital at the Seattle Art Museum, as part of the current exhibit at the SAM celebrating the arts of India. Larry Mahlis, Blair Miller, Bill Moyer, Brian Green, Jason Fellin, Chris Grantham recited and played as a group and each contributed solo pieces. Eight year old Anna Rose Warren (a student of Bill Moyer) played and inspired solo as well to thunderous applause. Marceil DeLacy joined in with the hung, a new Swiss steel drum-like instrument that was partly inspired by the tabla.

Video of the recital in Windows Media format

If you like what you see here, we are doing another longer recital on Sept. 20th at Brechemin Auditorium on the University of Washington campus. Come check it out!

July 12, 2003

Urmila and Vishal Nagar perform at Seattle Town Hall

Tonight Urmila and Vishal gave a performance featuring Kathak dance and also including vocal and instrumental performances. The great sarangi maestro Ramesh Mishra joined in. Urmila, Vishal and Rameshji began by playing various light music pieces with Urmila on vocals and then after the intermission Ramesh and Vishal performed tabla and sarangi solo pieces. To conclude with, Urmila dazzled the audience with her Kathak dance performance.

Video of the performance in Windows Media format

June 9, 2003

Vishal Arrives

Today Vishal Nagar arrived in Seattle for the summer. He will be staying in Seattle through the end of the summer to teach and perform. If you would like to start taking tabla lessons from Vishal, please contact us.

There will be many highlights of Vishal's stay in Seattle this summer. Vishal will be performing with Sarangi Maestro Ramesh Misra (details to follow), and will accompany Sitar great Ustad Shujaat Khan on August 15th. Vishal will also lead a Tabla camp on Aug. 1-3 on Vashon Island, and there will be a recital of Vishal's students in September. Send us a message if you have any questions, and keep tuned to pacifictabla.com for all the latest details!

May 3, 2003

Shivkumar Sharma and Zakir Hussain Play Seattle

Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and Ustad Zakir Hussain gave an electric performance on Saturday at the King Cat Theatre in downtown Seattle. The audience was entertained for over three hours. First was a piece which was played in Madhya lay Rupak and Drut Ektal. The mood was sober and heavy. After intermission a semi-classical piece was presented in Dadra and Drut tintal. Of course this gave a light feel to end the show. Shivkumarji's playing was very subtle and poetic, he also displayed his brilliant command over laya. Zakir bhai appeared once again to be the crowd pleaser with his trademark energetic solos. His sound was as deep as ever. Kya bath hai, Va Vah!!

Brian, Blair and Jason were back stage before the show to pay their respects to the musicians and to offer flowers to Shivkumarji and Zakir bhai on behalf of Vishal. As you can see a fun time was had by all!!

April 26, 2003

Jason, James and Brian give tabla workshop at World Rhythm Festival

Today Jason Fellin, Brian Green and James Whetzel presented a Tabla workshop at the 11th Annual World Rhythm Festival in Seattle.

We had a fabulous turn out, over fifty people were there. The crowd was responsive and participated actively. Our workshop was trying to show the difference between Indian Rhythm and African or Latin concepts (the primary focus of the festival). We also presented some compositions in tintal, accompaniment style, and had the crowd clap different tals. Tabla is really catching on in Seattle!

See video of the workshop in Windows Media format:

Jason (tabla), James (sarod) performing in sitarkhani:
High Quality(DSL and up)   Med Quality(56K)

Brian (tabla) playing a gat:
High Quality(DSL and up)   Med Quality(56K)

PacificTabla.com goes live!!!!

We are proud to announce the launch of PacificTabla.com on April 26th, 2003. We are looking forward to being a resource for the Tabla community in the Pacifc Northwest and look forward to hearing from you. In the last few years Seattle has silently become quite the little hub of tabla playing, so we're here to end the silence! So, for starters, why not find out more about our site?

April 21, 2003

Jason Records Radio Show

Today Jason recorded what (for what we know) is a first in Seattle radio. One full hour devoted to our beloved instrument, the tabla. Many of India's great Tabla players from past and present were featured, including a rare concert clip from our teacher, Vishal Nagar The radio show will be airing later this summer on KBCS-91.3--we'll let you know when we know when the airtime is.