Sujay Dighe + Ricky Mathew + Shakir A. Khan

Sujay Dighe (tabla) + Ricky Mathew (tabla) + Shakir A. Khan (sitar)

Sujay Dighe grew up amongst a family of musicians in Maryland and had a unique passion for music at a very young age. His first guru was Sundesh Sreenivas and after 3 years, Sujay later began lessons with his father, Shri Kishore Dighe. Under Kishoreji’s and Sundesh’s guidance, Sujay has become a highly respectable tabla player at only 20 years old. After years of hardwork, Sujay became a volunteer teacher at the Chinmaya Mission Washington Regional Center in Silver Spring, Maryland in 2007. There he spends his weekends teaching tabla to children of all ages. Although he continues training himself and others in tabla, Sujay’s current focus is on earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Information Systems at the University of Maryland.

Ricky Mathew developed an interest to learning tabla at a very young age. He was trained initially by Kishore Dighe who is a well-known tabla player and teacher in the Washington Metropolitan area and then followed in the footsteps of his current young and talented teacher, Sujay Dighe. Ricky has accompanied artists who play both classical and fusion music and has performed in India and New York.

Shakir A. Khan was born in India into the Kalavant Gharana clan. For generations his ancestors were musicians for the rulers of India. He started his musical training in his family at the age of 6. Growing up in a family that was predominantly tabla players he developed a stunning sense of tempo and rhythm. His style is a terrific dance of these rhythms, and the softness and the clearness of his tones brings out a unique energy in the sitar.

Shakir came to the United States as a young boy and started to intersperse his music with western music. He has done many intercultural concerts all over the United States and India. As a child, Shakir received intense musical training from his father, Ayub Khan. He then started his sitar training under the tutelage of Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan and continued to study the Pandit Nikhil Banerjee style and Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer style known as Jaffer Khani Baaj. He is also studying rhythm and tabla knowledge under Ustad Kadar Khan. Shakir has performed at NYU, Manhattan School of Music, and Bloomsburg University in PA. He is currently working with the Kalavant Center for music and dance as a sitar instructor and artistic director.