Krishna Bhatt

The nephew of influential sitar player Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Krishna Bhatt resurrects the 19th century tunes of Hindustani composer/singers, including Amin Khan, Begum Akhtar, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, and Shobha Gurtu, with a sound that the San Francisco Chronicle praised for its "clarity and expressive simplicity." Descended from a family of musicians, poets, and scholars, Bhatt was shown the musical traditions of the Senia school by his father, the late sitar player Pandit Shashi Mohan Bhatt. He expanded his musical vision under Ravi Shankar and during informal sessions with fellow musicians including Pandit Nikhil Banerjee and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Since the early '80s, Bhatt has collaborated with a lengthy list of Indian and Western musicians, including Terry Riley, the Kronos String Quartet, and tabla master Zakir Hussein, with whom he recorded the duo album Kirwani: Essence of a Raag.