A Hundred Strings in London

On 22 November A Hundred Strings comes to London, to St Saviour's on St George's Square in Pimlico. Adnan Khan plucks the sitar and Vinay Desai strikes the santoor.

Adnan Khan, a Grammy-nominated sitarist, plays in the gayaki ang, the approach that shapes the instrument after the singing voice. He slides between notes, holds a phrase and bends it, the way a singer does. He took his first lessons from his grandfather, the late Ustad Zafar Ahmed Khan, and trains with his father, the sitar player Ustad Saeed Khan.

Vinay Desai plays the santoor, Kashmir's hundred-stringed instrument, which he strikes with a pair of light wooden mallets. He cannot slide on it, so he phrases in runs and repeated strokes, and each note rings on after his hand has moved. He is a direct disciple of Padma Vibhushan Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, who carried the instrument from Kashmir's sufiana tradition to the classical concert stage.

Ustad Akram Khan plays tabla for both. He is the seventh generation of his family in the Ajrada Gharana. He learned from his great-grandfather Ustad Mohammad Shafi Khan, then from Ustad Niazu Khan, and teaches more than fifteen of the gharana's classic kaydas.

The same three musicians play a London Ragas baithak at The Tate Institute the evening before, Saturday 21 November.

Doors open at 4:45 PM. Music starts at 5:00 PM.