Teachers

Pandit Sharda Sahai

Pandit Sharda Sahai is the direct descendant of Pandit Ram Sahai who founded the Benaras Gharana of tabla playing in the latter part of the eighteenth century.  He was born in Benaras, India, in the ancestral home and learned tabla from his father, Bhagvati Sahai until he died when Sharda Sahai was eight years old. He then became a student of Kanthe Maharaj, whose own Guru was Baldeo Sahai, Sharda Sahai's grand father.

Sharda-jee began his professional career at the age of 9, performing as both a soloist and accompanist. He made his major public debut at sixteen, appearing at the  Italia Music Conference in Calcutta with the sarod maestro, Ali Akbar Khan. Since then he has played thousands of concerts worldwide. As an accompanist, he has performed with every major artist in India. He has also made his name as a soloist and has played for the prestigious National programme of All India Radio.

Sharda-jee has frequently toured the West as a soloist and as an accompanist to visiting artists from India.  He also takes part in a wide variety of cross-cultural and experimental music programmes. He has performed with South Indian musicians, with such avant garde composers such as John Cage, and with the internationally acclaimed percussion group Nexus. He is presently a member of the "World Drums" ensemble that brings together many of the leading percussion specialists of music cultures from around the world.

From 1970 to 1976, Sharda-jee resided in the USA. He was the artist in residence with the World Music programme at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, USA and visiting artist at Brown Univeristy in Rhode Island and at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. In 1975-1976, he received a grant from the John D Rockefeller Fund to be the Resident Artist at Brown University in Rhode Island. From 1985-1991, he was Senior Lecturer at Dartington College of Arts in Devon, UK. He presently divides his time between the UK, North America and India.

Pandit Sharda Sahai is in receipt of many prestigious awards including the Fellowship of Leeds College of Music in 1997, Tabla Shiromani from the Government of Bihar in 1999.  His solo performances can be heard on the Art of Benaras Baj (World Records, 1983; Audiorec, 1996), The Music of Asia (WOMAD, 1987) and the video to the Play Tabla manual.

As a performer, he continues to spellbind his audiences. As a teacher, he remains the guardian of this great living tradition, spreading it worldwide.

Dr Frances  Shepherd

Frances is from Guyana, South America. While studying western music at Dartington College of Arts in Devon, she had her first lessons in Indian music theory from Professor Nazir Jairazbhoy, in sitar playing from Ustad Imrat Khan and in tabla from Lateef Ahmed Khan. She was familiar  with these popular and devotional music forms from her native Guyana.

In 1971, she accepted an invitation from Professor Jairazbhoy to join the Asian Studies Department at Windsor University in Canada as teaching assistant and archivist. A year later she joined Wesleyan University in the USA where she pursued her studies in Indian music and ethnomusicology, gaining her PhD in 1976. Her dissertation was on "Tabla and the Benaras Gharana."

It was during her time at Wesleyan University that Frances became a disciple of Pandit Sharda Sahai, who was a resident artist there. Thereafter she became his teaching assistant and continuously worked with him to create a method of teaching Tabla in the Western world.

In 1976, she went to India and spent three years studying the Tabla and doing research in Indian music and culture. During her stay, she was the secretary of the Pandit Ram Sahai Sangit Vidyalaya (Varanasi) where she ran music and dance classes and organised conferences and workshops. On her return to the UK, she spent a year at the National Association for Asian Youth in Southall as their Curriculum Development Officer. From 1981-1991, she was Senior Lecturer at Dartington College of Arts, and then at Kingston University. She currently is working freelance and continues to be active in multi cultural education, in-service training for teachers and is a cultural diveristy consultant.

In 1987, Dr Shepherd along with Pandit Sharda Sahai set up the UK branch of PRSSV. Frances is the Director of Sangeet College, a subsidiary of PRSSV.

Shruti Soni

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Arpan Patel

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