Sandeep Das: We are not listening just by our ears. We are not just seeing through our eyes. We are not just communicating with our mouth. It's our senses inside with which we are trained to observe things and then execute very, very, very differently.
James Stewart: Those poetic words are from the insightful and talented Sandeep Das.
Sandeep: I play this Indian percussion instrument called the tabla, spelled T-A-B-L-A. It's played with both your hands, no sticks and the entire palm is used.
James: Sandeep made his debut as a tabla player at the age of 17 performing with sitar maestro Ravi Shankar. Over the decades, Sandeep has become a legend in the world of Indian classical music.
Sandeep: But I have been able to diversify and play with, you know, the biggest orchestras you could name and some of the biggest stars and artists of our current world.
James: Sandeep is coming to Vermont this Summer as part of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival. He’ll be performing at the “Stories from Asia” concert, taking place Thursday, August 22nd at 2:30pm at All Souls Interfaith Gathering in Shelburne, Vermont.
Sandeep: I love Vermont and I'm looking forward to being there and playing for all of you.
James: I had a chance to chat with Sandeep via Zoom. It was a wonderful conversation with a fascinating musician. I loved listening to all of his stories. I asked Sandeep about his childhood, growing up in India and how he first fell in love with the tabla.
Sandeep: I used to go to a Jesuit school called St. Xavier's high school and the father/principal called my father to complain that I had been disturbing the class by tapping on the desk. It's years back. I was about six years old. He recommended that I be taken to a doctor because there is definitely something wrong with me. I thought, you know, back home, my father will be upset and, you know, doctors injections. But I'm very thankful I had a very smart father who instead of getting mad at me, got me my first pair of tablas that very night. And when I went back home, he said, “That's a tabla and your lessons start tonight.”
And then within a year of that, my father and my first guru realized that I had the potential to do something good with it. And so my father literally started chasing the hugest star of our country. And so he said, “Well, if he has to learn, he has to learn from the best.” And that's how I ended up being taken to my guru, to my second guru.
I lived with my guru for 12 years. My debut concert was while I was with him with the famous Pandit Ravi Shankar. And my focus initially, of course, was just Indian classical music. You know, that's what I played. Because of the solid training, you know, one concert led to another, one festival led to another festival.
The first time I came to the US was 1990. First ever flight in my life. I had never gotten on a flight and my first flight was to New York. So I played Carnegie Hall. I played Lincoln Center. I played the big venues, but Indian classical music and I would actually turn off Western classical music because I couldn't relate to it. But then, part providence - part my hard work, I got a letter inviting me for four world premiere concerts with the New York Philharmonic and the Silk Road Ensemble.
James: The Silk Road Ensemble is a diverse collective of artists from around the world, dedicated to promoting understanding and hopeful inclusion. The ensemble was first organized in 1998 by cello virtuoso Yo-Yo Ma.
Sandeep: I didn't know who he was. I had no clue how big or famous or which instrument. That exposed me to a different world. You know, my very first experience with the New York Philharmonic was when a woman came and put a music stand in front of me. My first reaction was, “Wait a second. What is that?” And she said, “Oh, that's a music stand.” Before I could react to that, another woman came and put some pieces of paper and I'm like, “and those?” And she said, “That's your music.” I looked at them and I was like, “Oh, but I don't read music.” And before they could react, I actually said this, “Oh, but it's blocking my view.” Because yeah, I come, we don't come from a tradition of, you know, reading music, whatever you learn is for reference, then you are supposed to cook your own meal every night or paint your own picture every night with the ingredients that is in front of you.
But jokes apart, I see the benefits; how 10 violins become one. You know, put four tabla players and four sitar players and ask them to play something together, note by note. We’ll end up killing one another. So now there are tabla concertos that I play with orchestras as a soloist, which the entire orchestra and the maestro is reading and I'm the only one who can't read. But I love that challenge that, you know, how can I listen and make something mine.
James: As I mentioned before, Sandeep is coming to Vermont as part of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival. I asked him what pieces he will be performing at the “Stories from Asia” concert.
Sandeep: So I'm actually playing two different pieces. One is a piece written by this young, very talented young Indian female composer, Reena Esmail. I know her since her student days. She was, I think, on a Yale Fellowship. She was learning about Indian classical music in India. I loved her so much that I ended up calling her my daughter.
James: Sandeep will be performing Reena Esmail’s work “Blaze” alongside violinist Jenifer Frautschi. He’s also sharing a work of his own for solo tabla called “Rhythms of India.”
Sandeep: So what I'm going to present is a combination of certain improvised pieces where just the first line is fixed, for example. The rest partly improvised, partly fixed to completely fixed compositions.
James: You can catch Sandeep at the “Stories from Asia” concert of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival. That’s happening Thursday, August 22nd at 2:30pm at All Souls Interfaith Gathering in Shelburne, Vermont. He will also be hosting an in-depth discussion called “Rhythm of Life” on Friday, August 23rd at 10am at the Elley Long Music Center in Colchester. For tickets and more information about these events and more, check out the festival’s website at LCCMF dot org.
Sandeep: Please come. You won't be disappointed. Please keep supporting live music and still alive musicians.
