9.11 8:00pm

The Freight | Berkeley, CA

Salar Nader (tabla) presents The Afghan Music Project, with Quraishi (rubab)

Special Guest added the Afghan Legendary voice: Najim Nawabi

- Live in Berkeley on 11 September !!

doors 7pm / showtime 8pm

Afghan tabla virtuoso Salar Nader curates a program of the rich and varied legacy of classical compositions and folk melodies of this ancient Central Asian nation.

At the heart of this musical odyssey lies the enchanting sounds of the rûbab, Afghanistan's revered 21-stringed lute, renowned for its hauntingly soulful timbre. Accompanied by the tabla's rhythmic pulse, Salar's innovative fusion of Afghan and Indian percussion draws out the musical parallels with Hindustani music, exploring the essence of Ragas and the profound connection between two diverse yet harmonious traditions.

Salar Nader, disciple of the legendary Ustad Zakir Hussain, has toured extensively with NEA Jazz Master Stanley Clarke, appeared on Broadway with “The Kite Runner,” and took part in a series of recordings of the music of Afghanistan and Central Asia sponsored by Aga Khan Music Initiative for the Smithsonian Folkways label.

Quraishi Roya is a legendary master and composer of the Rubab, Afghanistan's national instrument. A self-taught musician originally from Kabul, he is widely celebrated for keeping the rich tradition of classical Afghan court music and regional folk styles alive.
In a time when music has been banned in Afghanistan, the music of these master musicians serves as a powerful reminder of the resilience and importance of preserving cultural heritage.

9.13 4:00PM

Sierra Madre Playhouse | Pasadena, CA

Mehta, Banerjee, and Nader carried the lineage of Kathak with extraordinary precision and heart, offering the audience an unfortunately rare look into this beautiful dance form." — Denali Huff, LA Dance Chronicle

Sandhi — in Sanskrit, a charged threshold, a meeting point between states — is Rukhmani Mehta's personal exploration of the traditional Kathak solo as an opening or gateway, performed with acclaimed musical artists Jayanta Banerjee on sitar and Salar Nader on tabla. Kathak invites us into a world: the sacred temples of ancient India, the grandeur of the Mughal courts, the ecstatic longing of the Bhakti saints, the songs of the courtesans, the stories of gods and goddesses that have traveled across time. Sandhi is where three currents meet: the story of India and her people, the story of Kathak itself, and the story of one artist at the threshold of both. Here, the ancient and the immediate collapse into one another — and in that collision, artist and audience find themselves changed, remade by an encounter with the living, the sacred, and the eternal.

Rukhmani Mehta is a Kathak artist, choreographer, and educator whose work has shaped the landscape of Indian classical dance in the United States for over two decades. Both lineage bearer and contemporary voice, she works at the intersection of classical Indian dance, contemporary performance, and embodied inquiry. A senior disciple of legendary master Pandit Chitresh Das, she is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Leela Dance Collective and Artistic Director of Leela Youth Dance Company — where she mentors young South Asian women as artists and cultural ambassadors. Her original works have been supported by residencies at Works & Process and Newman Center for the Performing Arts and include SPEAK, a kathak-tap collabaration; Son of the Wind, a traditional dance-drama; Encounters with Beauty, which weaves kathak dance together with contemporary chamber music and Hindustani vocals; and Sandhi, a personal exploration of the traditional kathak solo. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Mumbai), Kimmel Center, 92NY, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, The Broad Stage, Festival of Tabla, and NC State Live, among others. Mehta is a recipient of the Fulbright Award and is frequently invited to speak on embodied knowledge, lineage and mentorship, and the role of dance in consciousness and transformation.

10.1 7:00PM

Rudder Theater | Texas A&M

401 Joe Routt Blvd Suite 205
College Station, TX United States

doors 6pm / showtime 7pm

Third Coast Percussion commissioned the late Zakir Hussain to compose Murmurs In Time–a major new work that combines the beauty and complexity of Hindustani classical music with the singular sound world of this GRAMMY® Award-winning percussion ensemble. Salar Nader–a renowned tabla virtuoso and disciple of Hussain–will perform the piece with Third Coast Percussion as a tribute to the composer’s profound legacy. This special concert presentation also includes newly commissioned works from acclaimed composer/performers Jessie Montgomery, Tigran Hamasyan, and Jlin, as well as a solo tabla performance by Nader in honor of Hussain.

Click here for tickets and more information.

Murmurs In Time: Third Coast Percussion & Salar Nader, tabla

Jlin: Please Be Still
Tigran Hamasyan: Sonata for Percussion
Jessie Montgomery: Lady Justice / Black Justice, The Song
Zakir Hussain: Murmurs In Time

Please Be Still by Jlin was commissioned for Third Coast Percussion by Carnegie Hall and the Zell Family Foundation.

Sonata for Percussion by Tigran Hamasyan was was commissioned for Third Coast Percussion’s 20th Anniversary by Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting and the Zell Family Foundation.

Lady Justice / Black Justice, The Song by Jessie Montgomery was commissioned for Third Coast Percussion by the Zell Family Foundation, Carnegie Hall, Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa, and Stanford Live, Stanford University.

Murmurs in Time by Zakir Hussain was commissioned for Third Coast Percussion by Modlin Center for the Arts at University of Richmond, Carnegie Hall, Washington Performing Arts, and the Zell Family Foundation.