Folk Arts - Master Artist - Tor Dietrichson

Tor Dietrichson. Photo by Fritz Dent.

Tor Dietrichson has been playing tabla since 1974. He has studied with Ustad Allah Rakha and Zakir Hussain, and attended the Ali Akbar College of Music. He performed a tabla duet with Hussain on his album Global Village. The music of the North Indian tabla is over 3,000 years old.

Classical tabla is a sophisticated style of drumming. Its use of time signatures uncommon to Western music makes it sound far different from the music rooted in the United States and Western Europe. Tabla drumming accompanies vocal, instrumental and dance music, and is also performed solo. There is a high demand in the Indian community for tabla players, as tabla is an integral part of any kind of North Indian classical performance.

As a recipient of a 1993 Apprenticeship grant, Dietrichson taught Anil Prasad techniques in tabla drumming. Anil began his study of music at the age of five, when he accompanied his parents’ singing on a dholak, a less sophisticated type of drum. Anil hopes one day to perform with the best musicians in India.