TRIVENI with Zakir Hussain, Kala Ramnath and Jayanthi Kumaresh, Celebrating cultural ties between Singapore and India

The pre-eminent classical tabla virtuoso of our time, Zakir Hussain is appreciated as one of the world’s most esteemed and influential musicians, one whose mastery of his percussion instrument has taken it to a new level transcending cultures and national borders. Along with his legendary father and teacher, Ustad Allarakha, he has elevated the status of the tabla both in India and around the world. 

He is the recipient of countless awards, including two Grammys, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri, and Officier in France’s Order of Arts and Letters. Voted “Best Percussionist” by both the Downbeat Critics’ Poll and Modern Drummer’s Reader’s Poll over several years, Zakir was honored with SFJazz’s Lifetime Achievement Award at their 2017 Gala for his “unparalleled contribution to the world of music.” 

As a composer, he has scored music for numerous feature films, and has composed three concertos, the most recent enjoying the distinction as first-ever for tabla and orchestra. Zakir is also the recipient of the 1999 National Heritage Fellowship, the United States' highest honor for a master of traditional arts.

Zakir is the founder and president of Moment! Records, an independent record label presenting rare live concert recordings of Indian classical music and world music. 

Maestro Kala Ramnath with her “Singing Violin” stands among the world’s finest, most inspirational instrumentalists. Her playing has been featured on the Grammy nominated Miles from India project, and her compositions have appeared in the Grammy-winning album 27 Pieces and the Kronos Quartet’s 50 for the Future. The UK based Songlines magazine called Kala Ramnath one of the world’s fifty best instrumentalists and selected her album Kala as one of its fifty best recordings. She was the first Indian violinist ever to be featured in the violinists’ “Bible,” The Strad. She was the subject of a solo essay in the third edition to The Encyclopedia – Rough Guide to World Music. Her contributions feature in Hollywood soundtracks like the Oscar nominated Blood Diamond, and many more. 

Most significantly in an Indian context, in May 2017 she was awarded the most illustrious Sangeet Natak Academy Puraskar for her contributions to the violin in Hindustani Classical Music.

Kala is at the vanguard of the present generation of Indian instrumental superstars. Due to her rigorous training in the Hindustani classical tradition and familiarity with the Karnatic classic tradition, she comfortably forges musical alliances with artists of renown from different genres around the globe, incorporating elements of Western classical. Jazz. Flamenco and traditional African music into her rich and varied repertoire.

With her mesmerizing glides, the timing and purity of her notes, and her soulful playing, Dr. Jayanthi Kumaresh has been captivating audiences around the world for thirty years now and is one of the leading Veena (roughly, the Indian lute) artistes today. A sixth-generation musician, she began playing the Veena at the age of three and is one of the youngest Veena artists ever to receive the A-TOP GRADING, the highest from All-India Radio.

Apart from several prestigious venues and festivals in India, Jayanthi has performed at many international festivals, including the San Francisco Jazz Festival, the Darbar Festival, the Queensland Music Festival, the Darwin Music Festival, and the Adelaide Music Festival, and at prestigious venues such as the United Nations in New York, the Palladium, Indiana, the Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, and the Northwest Folklife Festival, Seattle.

She has received many awards in India, including the Sangeetha Choodamani, the Kalaimamani from the Government of Tamil Nadu, the Veena Naada Mani, the Kala Ratna, the Sathyashree, and the Gaana Varidhi, to name a few. She is a seven-time recipient of The Music Academy, Chennai’s Award for Veena.

A collaborator, she has performed with legends such as tabla Ustad Zakir Hussain, Violin Maestro Shri. R. Kumaresh, Flautist Ronu Mujamdar, and the like. A pioneer, she founded the Indian National Orchestra, where 21 musicians playing different Indian instruments came together under one banner to showcase Indian classical music. A researcher, she holds a Doctorate for her works on “styles and playing techniques of the Saraswati Veena,” and conducts workshops and lecture demonstrations around the world. A composer, she has scored music for several dance productions and musicals. Her music for the dance ballet Krishna Bhakthi for Rasika, Portland, featured both the Carnatic and Hindustani styles of composition. She also composed and released the album Mysterious Duality, which is a multi-dimensional reflection of the simple yet complex self through a single instrument, the Veena, overlaying layers of several Veena recordings to create a symphonic composition.