Indian Classical Music: Jasdeep Singh Degun & Yama Sarshar

Jasdeep Singh Degun Anomaly Concert
2023 de Doelen

According to Classical Explorer an Indian classical concert with sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun is a ‘Daring improvisation, and an explosion of possibilities’. And Nitin Sawhney was quoted in the Financial Times describing Jasdeep as ‘One of our greatest musicians in the UK’.

Jasdeep Singh Degun is an exceptional sitar player who, like no other, knows how to take the listener into the world of Indian classical music with enchanting melodies (raga), rhythms (tala) and improvisation. On his debut album Anomaly (2022), under the mentorship of renowned producer Nitin Sawhney, he uniquely combines Indian and Western classical music. The album, praised for its elegant and contemporary tone, was in the Financial Times’s top 10 best world and folk albums of 2022. Degun, who performs worldwide, constantly manages to reinvent genres, bringing his Indian heritage to a large and wide audience.

Listen to Jasdeep’s album Anomaly

Yama Sarshar is an internationally acclaimed Tabla player. Yama was born in Sydney (Australia) into a musical family from Kabul (Afghanistan).

Yama received his initial training from his Father Ustad Sarshar from the tender age of 2 years old. Yama travelled to Mumbai (India) in 1998 to receive further guidance under the late Tabla maestro Ustad Alla Rakha Khan from the Punjab Gharana school of Tabla. Yama has been fortunate and blessed to have studied and toured throughout Europe and Australia with the late Tabla legend Ustad Zakir Hussain.

Yama is a senior disciple of Ustad Fazal Qureshi and studies regularly with his Guru at the Ustad Allah Rakha Institute of Music in Mumbai (India). Yama regularly performs throughout the world with all types of music genres and is always in high demand by his fellow musicians. He has performed in Prestigious venues such as the Sydney Opera House where he scored 100% for his HSC exam for musical performance and was asked to perform amongst the top 10 performers in the state of New South Wales (Australia).

Yama has performed for many famous celebrities, such as Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Keanu Reeves, Romeo and Juliet film director Baz Lurhmann, the Australian national cricket team and the Indian national cricket team, to name just a few.
Yama has performed with many great Afghani, Indian, Pakistani artists such as Ustad Naim Nazary, Ustad Sharif Ghazal, Haidar Salim, Hangama, Ustad Nashenas, Farhad Darya, the late Nasrat Parsa, Ustad Mahwash, the late Jagjit Singh, Anup Jalota, the late Pankaj Udhas, Ustad Ghulam Ali Khan Saab and Sabri Brothers (Qawwali).