Ustad Amjad Ali's 'jugalbandi' in China

For maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan playing the sarod in symphony with Chinese musicians, at his debut concert in Taipei, was a beautiful and very rewarding experience.

At the recent "East meets East" performance here, the Ustad strummed alongside 100 musicians from the Taipei Chinese  Orchestra (TCO) at a festival of orchestras and symphonies.
 
"The experience was very rewarding. This is the first time the sarod has gone to Taipei," Amjad Ali said on return from his 10-day visit to the Taiwanese capital.
 
Earlier this year the Indian musician had teamed up with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra led by Welsh conductor David Murphy for a six-city India tour, where his self written composition "Samagamam" based on different seasonal ragas was played out.
 
"With TCO I could not play "Shanti," the piece which I had specially composed for Chinese audiences. However, Beijing Philharmonic has invited me to play and I hope I will play there sometime this winter," said the Ustad.
 
Chinese instruments such as the Pipa (lute) and Erhu (fiddle), included in the TCO, seems to have impressed the maestro who frequently experiments with a variety of music from across India and abroad.
 
"I saw new instruments of typical Chinese origin and they are all very beautiful and produce a different kind of sound," he said. 
 
Apart from the music performance at the historic Zhongshan hall, for which the maestro said he rehearsed for a week, Amjad Ali also fell in love with the Chinese weather.
 
Prior to the performance the ace musician said he was happy that he got the opportunity to bring together Indian and Chinese music traditions.
 
"The two traditions are different and have not come together often," he said.
 
Delighted by the excellent response he got from music connoisseurs and laymen alike, the Ustad said he would like to visit Taiwan every year if possible and hold workshops with Chinese musicians to bring the two traditions closer.