Indian tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, whose transcendental music united cultures, died Sunday, December 15 in San Francisco. He was 73 years old.
Hussain died at 3:42 p.m. at UCSF, surrounded by family and loved ones, family spokesman Jon Bleicher told the Chronicle. The cause of death was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease.
“He leaves behind an extraordinary legacy cherished by countless music lovers around the world, with an influence that will resonate for generations to come,” his family said in a statement.
With a storied career spanning more than five decades, Hussain is widely regarded as one of the greatest tabla players of all time and for introducing Indian classical music to Western audiences. He is also considered a pioneer of the contemporary world music movement.
Hussain learned the tabla, or Indian hand drum, at the age of 7 from his father, Alla Rakha, also a tabla virtuoso and accompanist to Ravi Shankar. Hussain has collaborated with an impressive number of musicians, including Ali Akbar Khan, Shivkumar Sharma, Yo-Yo Ma, Charles Lloyd, Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer and George Harrison.
He left Mumbai for Marin County in the 1970s and worked with area musicians, frequently playing shows at SFJazz. He was reward a Lifetime Achievement Award awarded by the institution in 2017.
He was also a composer, creating concertos, composing film scores, and collaborating with dance companies such as Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet. A passionate teacher, he has mentored countless budding musicians over the years.
Hussain is survived by his wife, Antonia Minnecola; daughters, Anisa Qureshi and Isabella Qureshi; granddaughter, Zara Phillips; brothers Taufiq Qureshi and Fazal Qureshi; and his sister, Khurshid Aulia.