Ashwin Batish to start teaching at University of California, Santa Cruz

Starting winter quarter 2016, Ashwin Batish joins the University of California music department to teach an ensemble class on North Indian percussion with emphasis on learning the tabla, dholak and pakhavaj drums.

It was Ashwin's father, Pandit Shiv Dayal Batish, that first came to the USA upon the invitation of the university to teach Indian music at Merrill College. That was in the late 60s. Today, Ashwin continues where his father left off and it is quite possible that he will be requested to add other areas of his expertise to the teaching mix. Some other possible ensemble and lecture courses being discussed are classes in sitar, harmonium, and world beat fusion with western pop, jazz and funk - a specialty of Ashwin's that has shown great success by his Sitar Power releases.

The university's music department is poised to be a great contender in the field of multiculturalism. Indian music in particular has had some very generous benefactors that have weighed in with grants to boost its presence. This has created an endowed chair, currently also the U.C. Music Department Chair, Mr. Dard Neumann. In bringing Ashwin on board at UCSC, Dard has opened a very large door for expansion into a vast resource that is available to the UCSC music student. This resource consists of written and recorded works, by Pandit Shiv Dayal Batish and his son Ashwin Batish, that span both the North Indian and the South Indian ragas. There are also music songs written to specifically teach the North Indian raga called Lakshan Geet. This colossal work has been created and recorded over the period 1978 to 2006, when the senior Batish passed away at age 91.

It is the Batish Family's sincere wish that this research and the ensuing works find a use at the university level where further research and learning will create an army of learners and performers that can take this project further into the musical world. It is a wish come true to see it's possible application to be where Pandit Shiv Dayal had first started to teach and later settled down in, That place being the town of Santa Cruz and at the University of California. If this was not enough, the Batish family today has yet another connection wherein, Ashwin's son, Keshav, is presently an undergraduate at the same university studying for a PhD in the music field.

Please share this news with all that might want to know more about this or are interested in taking the Tabla class with Ashwin.

Here are some clips of Ashwin playing tabla. Visit YouTube and the Ragmala channel to see all the Batish family uploads.

Tabla Giant 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4yn5aoijsY

Tabla Giant Part 11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es0cyH7XYSQ

Tabla Giant Part 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgjAz2CL6-s