Leicester Raga Rhythms: Kathak, Indian Slide Guitar & Tabla Duet

KalaSudha has presented live Indian classical music in Leicester at the Sue Townsend Theatre, 16 Upper Brown Street, Leicester LE1 5TE. KalaSudha's Leicester concert, Leicester Raga Rhythms, played there on Sunday 28 September 2025 as part of Kala Festival 2025, in three sessions: Kathak, Indian slide guitar and a tabla duet.

KalaSudha is also launching a streaming player on its own platform soon, with live concerts and edited recordings of past concerts in up to 4K. For future Leicester dates, see how to hear about new KalaSudha concerts in Leicester.

Ustad Akram Khan is a tabla player and the seventh generation of his family in the Ajrara gharana. His father was Hashmat Ali Khan. As a boy he trained first with his great-grandfather, Mohammad Shafi Khan, and later with Niazu Khan. For over four decades he has kept the gharana's repertoire alive, and he preserves more than 15 of its classic qaidas through his teaching and concerts. He made his international debut in Norway in 1987 and has played on All India Radio more than 800 times.

Pandit Debasis Chakroborty is a Hindustani slide guitarist and the senior-most disciple of Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra, and his playing reflects Kabra's style. His name is also written Debasis Chakraborty. He plays in the Senia-Maihar gharana and has taught since 1992.

He has been part of the Department of Performing Arts at Mangalayatan University since its inception, and returns to universities in Australia and the USA as a conductor-performer and artist-in-residence. He helped carry out a joint music research project between Mangalayatan University and Monash University, and has published 10 research papers.

A tabla is a pair of hand drums. The smaller drum, the dayan, is wooden, sits under the right hand and carries the pitch. The larger drum, the bayan, sits under the left hand and gives the bass. The bayan is most often copper, sometimes clay or wood, and the player bends its bass by pressing the heel of the palm into the head while striking.

Each head carries a black circle of tuning paste. The paste weights the skin and adds overtones. The dayan rings at a clear pitch, and the bayan gives a deep bass with a looser pitch that the palm can shift.

Kathak is a classical dance from north India, one of the eight forms the Sangeet Natak Akademi recognises as classical. A Kathak dancer works with two tools: chakkars, fast spins often taken on the heel, and abhinaya, the storytelling carried in the face and hands.

Ankle bells (ghungroo) mark the footwork, so the Kathak dancer plays as a percussionist too, trading rhythmic patterns with the tabla in the same rhythmic cycle.