Sam Evans. B.Mus. Hons (Music Perf.)

Over the past decade Sam has evenly divided his time between Australia and India performing concerts as soloist and accompanist in both traditional and modern music. He has performed live on Indian and Australian television, on national and international radio and at numerous international jazz and world music festivals. He is currently teaching Indian and world music at Monash University where he co-founded and directs the innovative and highly successful World of Music Orchestra.

Raised in rural Australia, Sam was a member of the popular Machine Translations and later spent a decade in Calcutta with funding assistance from The Australia Council for the Arts, The Ian Potter Foundation and Monash University studying tabla under one of the world's most renowned tabla players, Pandit Anindo Chatterjee. Sam has also studied with the famous tabla master Ustad Zakir Hussian in America as well as Ustad Sabir Khan, Aubijit Bannerjee and Debasis Brahmachari in India.

Sam has drawn from his rural Australian and Indian influences to create a distinctive musical approach which expresses both a sense of spaciousness and the vibrant sophistication of the Indian tabla tradition. Renowned for his cross-cultural music collaborations Evans has performed and written music for the television, animation, documentaries and regularly performs with some of Melbourne’s finest jazz musicians.

Fine Blue Thread, his project with Indonesian singer Ria Soemardjo and well known cellist Helen Mountfort (my friend the chocolate cake) have been playing sell out shows throughout Australia and have received rave reviews for their debut album, Red Mountain, including 4.5 stars from ABC Limelight Magazine. The album has now been released in Europe and music from this CD has recently been included on a BBC compilation CD - 'A Beginners Guide To The Music Of India' alongside Ravi Shankar, Nitin Sawhney and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Sam regularaly performs traditional solo tabla lehara concerts and plays in a number of traditional Indian ensembles in Melbourne. In 2008 he brought internationally acclaimed Indian classical guitarist, Debasis Chakroborty to Australia from India. Together they performed a series of concerts and workshops in Australia before travelling to India to perform in concerts and festivals while promoting their CD entitled Charukeshi.

As a teacher Sam lectures at Monash University in Indian music and world music as well as running a two level course in Indian rhythm. He composes, arranges and performs regularly for the University where he co-founded and directs the World of Music Orchestra. Sam also runs a very busy tabla school in Hawthorn, teaching traditional and modern tabla to groups and individuals. The tabla school's popular end of year concert has now become a feature of the Boite World Music program in Melbourne.

Sam is currently on scholarship completing a Masters degree in music performance (tabla) at Monash University. He has recently written for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Music and is currently writing a progressive tabla repertoire book.

 | © 2008 Sam Evans all rights reserved |