GEORGE RUCKERT greets you with a big smile and a namaste!
Ruckert is a Sarod player and devoted to Indian classical music in the US.
“Look! I wear kurta-pyjama when I am at home in Boston and cook a lot of Indian recipes. I mostly eat dal-chawal. But, I know how to make chikan curry, fish and many other Indian recipes,” he says.
He is married to a Kathak dancer, who is an American. “We have been happily married for the last 30 years. She runs a dance school Chhandika in Boston. We have performed together on a couple of occasions,” he says.
Ruckert is in the city to perform at Bhatkhande Music Institute. A performer, composer, arranger, author and teacher, George Ruckert is a rare musician who commands both western and Indian classical disciplines. He is one of the senior most disciples of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and a Senior Lecturer MIT where he teaches western classical and Indian classical music. He is very fond of kids. “I don’t have any children. Because when it was time to start a family I was not monetarily sound. But I still wish to adopt kids,” he says.
He came to India on January 6 and will stay till February-end. He has been performing in a number of cities around the country and is very fond of reading.
{{/usCountry}}He came to India on January 6 and will stay till February-end. He has been performing in a number of cities around the country and is very fond of reading.
{{/usCountry}}This becomes obvious when he starts narrating historical facts about Lucknow.
“I read anything that I can lay my hands on. I read history, philosophy, fiction, motivational or any other book,” he adds with a laugh.
He was for many years the teacher and director of the Ali Akbar College of Music near San Francisco. And he is one of the founders of MITHAS, MIT Heritage of the Arts of South Asia.