My western training started in the form of classical piano studies at the New School for Music Study in Princeton, NJ, as a kid. (I only stumbled into piano because my family gained one in a moving mixup when we moved from Germany to the States.) I had some training in electronic music on one of the early Moog modulars during high school, while playing in rock bands, and got a classical composition degree at Berklee College of Music, while being subjected to Berklee's inevitable immersion in and worship of jazz. (I failed to become a True Believer, though I like a lot of jazz.)
For the Hindustani tradition, I was privileged while at Berklee to attend many sessions and mehfils at tabla teacher Pandit Shashi Nayak's home and studio in Boston. Later, I studied briefly in the group instrumental (on sitar) and vocal classes at Ustad Ali Akbar Khan's college in San Rafael, Calif., and also learned a great deal from getting to know the sons and daughter of Ustad Salamat Ali Khan: Sukhawat Ali Khan, Shafqat Ali Khan, Riffat Sultana, and her husband Shiraz Ali Khan. A great singing family, of the venerable Sham Chaurasi gharana.
Since autumn 2006 I've been studying on fretless guitar (using sarod technique) with the sitarist Uwe Neumann here in Montréal in my spare time while pursuing a philosophy degree.
More of my tunes are available at ReverbNation:
