Pandit Ken Zuckerman and Vidushi Emmanuelle Martin Bring Global Perspectives to the 16th Annual LearnQuest Music Festival
It is often said that music transcends all boundaries. Inspired by this extraordinary power of music, LearnQuest Academy of Music was founded in 1996 and started its Annual Music Festival in 2006 – with the goal of Connecting through Music.
This year, LearnQuest’s 16th Annual Festival will feature two artists, Pandit Ken Zuckerman and Vidushi Emmanuelle Martin, who truly embody this spirit. Though these individuals were not born into Indian culture, Indian classical music connected with them. They have since dedicated their lives to learning, performing, and connecting others with the beautiful musical traditions of India.
Pandit Ken Zuckerman. Photo by Heiner Grieder
Pandit Ken Zuckerman is a Grammy-nominated sarod virtuoso from Switzerland. He started his musical journey in his childhood with piano and then switched to guitar. Later, Zuckerman started training on the sitar with the legendary sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and subsequently chose the sarod. Zuckerman has trained with Ustad ji for 37 years and is currently the director of the Ali Akbar College of Music in Switzerland. He has performed extensively around the world in both traditional Indian classical concerts as well as fusion projects and world music collaborations. Zuckerman is also a professor at the Musik Akademie Basel, Switzerland, where he teaches several unique courses within the Studio für Musik der Kulturen, which is focused on introducing music from other parts of the world to students of Western music.
Vidushi Emmanuelle Martin is an accomplished Carnatic vocalist from France. She started her musical training on piano at an early age before taking up Carnatic music. She has spent 10 years in Chennai, India training with the renowned Carnatic vocalist Vidwan T.M. Krishna, who will also be performing at this year’s LearnQuest Festival. Martin has performed extensively in Europe and the United States, and she teaches private lessons as well as training courses. She also hosts innovative world music workshops in collaboration with artists from other traditions of music.
Connect with these inspiring artists and their music at LearnQuest’s Annual Music Festival on March 29-31 and April 13-14 at Regis College in Weston, MA. For tickets and more information on this year’s festival and music classes, please visit www.learnquest.org.
(About the writer: Selina Banerjee is a faculty member of Hindustani classical vocal music at LearnQuest Academy of Music. She has been learning with Dr. Pradeep Shukla at LearnQuest for the past 17 years and completed her Manch Pravesh in 2017. She is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at Northeastern University’s Department of Chemical Engineering.)