Indian Music at UCLA gets $1 million endorsement
The donation will ensure that the study of Indian music continues at the UCLA, reports Kanupriya Vashisht.
Music and medicine may seem strange bedfellows but they came together in a big way at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
Dr. Mohinder Sambhi, professor emeritus at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, made an endorsement of $1 million to the university's Department of Ethnomusicology to help establish an endowed chair in Indian music in memory of his late wife.
The Mohindar Brar Sambhi chair will support the teaching and research activities of a distinguished faculty member by underwriting graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, staff and services, and special projects. It will ensure that the study of Indian music continues at UCLA, a university press release said.
"It is gratifying that I can honor my wife with a gift that will ensure that the study of Indian musical culture will continue to be supported at UCLA," Sambhi said.
The Sambhi chair forms part of UCLA's Ensuring Academic Excellence Initiative, a five-year effort aimed at raising $250 million in private commitments specifically for the recruitment and retention of the very best faculty and graduate students. The initiative was launched in June 2004.
Other goals include $100 million to fund 100 new endowed chairs for faculty across campus, increasing the number to 331. In addition, campus officials plan to increase support for an estimated 3,500 graduate students per year by raising $100 million to fund fellowships and scholarships in the UCLA College and $50 million for fellowships and scholarships in UCLA's 11 professional schools.
The chair will be inaugurated Oct. 2 at a concert featuring sitar maestro Shujaat Khan, accompanied by Abhiman Kaushal on the tabla. Khan is the son of the legendary Vilayat Khan and has been teaching sitar at UCLA since 1996.
"Dr. Sambhi's pledge, to my knowledge the largest-ever private gift for Indian music study to a university, has enormous value for the field of ethnomusicology, which has for a half-century championed the teaching of Indian music, as well as other musical traditions from around the world, in American universities," Daniel Neuman, provost and executive vice chancellor of UCLA and a scholar of Indian music, said.
The Department of Ethnomusicology at UCLA explores music from all continents of the world, including traditional music, music from America's many ethnic groups, and contemporary forms of American popular and "world beat" music, including jazz.
Founded in 1960, the UCLA ethnomusicology department has had a distinguished galaxy of music stars from India on its rolls. The earliest teacher of Indian music at UCLA was the late T. Vishwanathan from South India. He taught flute and vocal music.
Harihar Rao - a former student of Ravi Shankar - served as director of the Indian Studies Group in the institute. When Rao arrived at UCLA, there were no sitars and only one set of worn-out tablas. Rao had to get new instruments from New Delhi. He also worked with local jazz musicians, including Don Ellis, to exchange Indian rhythmic ideas.
A number of Indian artists also came to UCLA for brief residencies, among them master sitar player Imrat Khan of the Imdad Khan gharana (tradition), and his brother, Vilayat Khan. Shujaat Khan, son of Vilayat Khan, has been teaching sitar in the department of ethnomusicology since 1996. During the 2003-04, Nishat Khan, son of Imrat Khan, taught sitar in the department.
In their own way, these artists have all helped to consolidate the nearly 50-year tradition of Indian music teaching and performance at UCLA.