Emam Musician/Composer/Producer/Teacher/Spiritual Aspirant

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Originally from Iran, Emam migrated to the United States in 1974.

MUSICIAN

Emam has been trained in North Indian Classical drumming by the grand masters of tabla: Ustad Alla Rakha and Ustad Zakir Hussain. He also studied the Delhi Gharana of Tabla with the late Ustad Inam Ali Khan and his son Gholam Haidar. In 1991, Emam was awarded a scholarship for study of music in India by the American Institute of Indian Studies with funding from the Smithsonian Institute. Over the past twenty five years, Emam has performed with great artists from around the world, such as: Mickey Hart (drummer - USA), Zakir Hussain (tabla master - India), Habib Khan (sitar - India/USA), Michael Shrieve (original Santana drummer), Sikiru Adepoju (African drummer), Deepak Ram (South African bansuri player), Artur Dutkiewicz (Piano - Poland), Jahiar Azim Irani (santoor - Poland/Iran), Ancient Future (world fusion ensemble), Irina Mikhailova (singer - Russian), Rupak Kulkarni (bansuri - India), Manose (bansuri - Nepal), Piotr Baron (sax - Poland), Georges Lemmom (violin - the Middle East/USA), Tam Tam Project (world fusion ensemble - Poland), Tytus Wojnowicz (Oboe - Poland), Shabda Kahn (vocals - USA), Shafqat Ali Khan (Singer from Pakistan), George Brooks (sax - USA), Nina Hagen (Pop star - Germany), Latif Bolat (singer - Turkey/USA) and the Seattle Symphony with the original Frank Zappa Band. Please see his Performance Highlights for examples of his previous concerts.

COMPOSER

Emam's compositions have been recorded and released on the following "Emam & Friends" albums: Jai Ganesha Indian Dream Is This Real? Sacred Insanity Voices of the Goddess

PRODUCER

In 1989, Emam established Eternal Music, a music label dedicated to traditional and sacred world music and world fusion music. All the albums released by Eternal Music have been produced by Emam. In addition, he has co-produced albums for Latif Bolat (Infinite Beginning) and Mindia Klein (Balanise Dream). In addition, since 1983, Emam has been providing engineering assistance to Ustad Zakir Hussain on regular basis, including recording his live performances. As a result Emam has recorded and managed sound for many of India's top performing artists with Ustad Zakir Hussain, including: Ustad Alla Rakha, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Ustad Bissmillah Khan, Ustad Sultan Khan, L Shankar, and many more. Emam has also engineered the last two "Emam & Friends" albums: Voices of the Goddess and Sacred Insanity

TEACHER

Emam offers workshops and classes in Rhythm and tabla for all levels. He has been giving private and group lessons in USA & Europe for many years. For details please click here.

Spiritual Aspirant

In the summer of 1978, Emam had the privilege of visiting Hairakhan Vishwa Maha Dham, Maha Avatar Babaji's Ashram in the foothills of the Himalayas, for the first time. Between 1978 and 1984 (Babaji's Maha Samadhi), Emam was able to visit Hairakhan and spend much close time with Babaji. This is when he began his singing and playing Kirtan. Over the years, Emam has traveled to and spent much time in India studying and living the music and the culture.