Saturday May 16, 2015

The Music Gallery presents

Pedram Khavarzamini + Shawn Mativetsky

Doors: 7PM | Concert: 8pm

The Music Gallery, 197 John St.

Tickets: $25 Regular | $15 Member/Students | $20 Advance BUY NOW

East Meets Further East

Both Iran and India have incredible drumming traditions. This night will witness two master drummers exploring the full range of their respective instruments, culminating in a collective effort at concert’s end which will highlight the similarities and differences of these percussive languages.

Exponent of the Benares gharana, and disciple of the legendary Pandit Sharda Sahai, Shawn Mativetsky is a highly sought-after tabla performer and educator. He is active in the promotion of the tabla and North Indian classical music through lectures, workshops, and performances across Canada and internationally. Based in Montreal, Mativetsky teaches tabla and percussion at McGill University. His solo CD, Payton MacDonald: Works for Tabla, was released in 2007, and Cycles, his new CD of Canadian compositions for tabla, was released in the fall of 2011. Mativetsky will be performing with bassist George Koller.

Iranian tombak master Pedram Khavarzamini has performed at the Music Gallery as a member of the Shiraz Ensemble. Born in 1975 in Tehran, Khavarzamini has a unique way of playing the tombak in the sense that he keeps a traditional base while adding his own modern patterns.

He learned to play the tombak alongside tombak masters Kamyar Mohabbat and Bahman Rajabi. After meeting Greek music innovator Ross Daly in Germany, Pedram decided to leave Iran and join Daly in Greece, becoming a member of Daly’s group Labyrinth. Since then, he has toured the world in solo and collaborative settings with such players as Stelios Petrakis, Vassilis Stavrakakis, Dariush Talai, Ballake Sissoko, Dhruba Gosh, Khaled, Hossein Arman and Siamak Aghaie.