Sikkil Gurucharan, a well-known musician in his native India, is engaging students and the larger community while at UC Davis as a Fulbright Scholar. Gurucharan, co-teaching a class in the Department of Religious Studies, will give several workshops on Indian music and perform in a concert with other Indian musicians.

Gurucharan

“I plan to interact at large with the student community and also collaborate with the eclectic mix of musicians in the area,” said Gurucharan, a vocalist who lives in Chennai on the southeast coast of India. “It is a new step in my career as a performing musician and I am excited to be able to reach out to a wider audience. I am looking forward to some great ideas and music.”

He, Rita Sahai, director of the UC Davis Department of Music’s Hindustani Vocal Ensemble, and several other musicians will present the concert Jugalbandi: Carnatic and Hindustani Music, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25. The concert will represent a dialog, or “jugalbandhi,” between the Hindustani and Carnatic traditions of Indian classical music. The two have a shared vocabulary of melody and rhythm, but also differ in significant ways. The Hindustani tradition is mostly found in northern Indian, Carnatic in the south.

The concert will be in the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets.

Gurucharan will also present four two-hour-long workshops while here. The workshops on a variety of Indian music and featuring other musicians from the region will take place on three Saturdays, Feb. 7 and 21, and March 7, all from 10 a.m. to noon; and 5-7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13. Read more about each workshop here.

The workshops are free and open to the public, with registration required by Thursday (Feb. 5). Send your registration by email to the music department's Phil Daley (put “Gurucharan Workshop" in the subject line).

In early 2012, Gurucharan visited UC Davis and performed in a class taught by Archana Venkatesan, an assistant professor in religious studies.

“That was the starting point of this whole new turn for me as a Fulbright scholar,” he said. “It was Professor Venkatesan’s idea that I apply for a Fulbright to come to UC Davis to do research and co-teach.”

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