Homayoun Sakhi is an Afghan-born player of the Afghan Rubab, an instrument of which he is considered a master. Since moving to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, he has collaborated with the

Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for almost 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classic ...

and others. Sakhi was born in 1976 in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

into a family of musicians; he learned to play the rubab from his father. He moved to the United States in 2002 and lives in

Fremont, California Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area, Fremont has a population of 230,504 as of 2020, making it the fourth List of cities and towns in the San Fra ...

("Little Kabul"), where he teaches Afghan music at a children's school he opened. Sakhi's music is heard on two CDs from

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fou ...

: ''The Art of the Afghan Rubab: Music of Central Asia Vol. 3'' (2006), a solo album, and '' Rainbow: Music of Central Asia Vol. 8'' (2010), a collaboration with the

and others. He has collaborated with

santoor The Indian santoor instrument is a trapezoid-shaped hammered dulcimer, and a variation of the Iranian santur. The instrument is generally made of walnut and has 25 bridges. Each bridge has 4 strings, making for a total of 100 strings. It is a ...

player Rahul Sharma and was a resident at

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pro ...

Dawn Elder Dawn Elder (San Francisco, California) is an American composer, pianist, impresario, music producer, and promoter best known for her efforts to fuse Middle Eastern music with contemporary rock and roll, rock and pop music. In the 1980s she began ...

brought him together with Afghan singer

Mahwash Ustad Farida Mahwash ( fa, استاد فریده مهوش); (1947) is an Afghan singer and voice of Afghanistan. She was the first woman (as of 2013) to have been conferred the title of honor, honorary title of "Ustad" (meaning Master or Maes ...

, with whom he formed the group Voices of Afghanistan. In a 2013 interview with

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

, Sakhi said he practiced between eight and twelve hours every day, inventing new techniques along the way. He plays higher on the neck than others do, and picks the strings in both directions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sakhi, Homayoun Living people 1976 births People from Kabul People from Fremont, California Afghan musicians