Consolidating the nearly 50-year-old tradition of Indian music teaching at the University of California, an 'endowed chair in Indian Music' with a pledge of one million Dollars was set up on Monday to mark Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary.
The chair was inaugurated at a concert featuring sitar maestro Shujaat Khan, accompanied by Abhiman Kaushal on the tabla. The duo started with 'aheer bhairavi' and finished off with the Father of the Nation's favourite 'Vaishnav Jana...' in raga 'alihal belawal'.
Khan is the son of the legendary maestro Vilayat Khan and has been teaching the sitar at the University since 1996.
The Sambhi Chair, part of the School of Arts and Architecture at the University of California seeks to ensure that the study of Indian music will continue at the UCLA and support teaching and research activities of a distinguished faculty member by underwriting graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.
"Dr Sambhi's pledge - to my knowledge is the largest ever private gift for Indian music study to a university and has enormous value for the field of ethnomusicology, which has for a-half-century championed the teaching of Indian music, as
well as other musical traditions from around the world, in American universities," Daniel Neuman, provost and executive
vice chancellor of UCLA and a scholar of Indian music, said.
"It is gratifying that I can honour my wife with a gift that will ensure that the study of Indian musical culture will continue to be supported at UCLA," said Sambhi, who was born in Ludhiana and came to the United States in 1953.
"Besides UCLA is my alma mater and South California has the largest segment of the Indian American community," he said.
Others present on the occasion included Deputy Chief of Mission, Indian Embassy, Washington, Raminder Jassal, Sanjay Subrahmanyam, director of the recently opened Centre for India and South Asia and part of the UCLA International Institute, and Harihar Rao of Music Circle and director of the Indian Studies Group at the Institute of Ethnomusicology from
1960-1966.
The Sambhi Chair forms part of UCLA's ensuing Academic Excellence Initiative, a five-year effort aimed at generating $250 million in private commitments specifically for the recruitment and retention of the very best faculty and graduate students.
The initiative was launched in June 2004. Its goals include $100 million to fund 100 new endowed chairs for faculty across campus, increasing the number to 331.
In addition, campus officials plan to increase support for an estimated 3,500 graduate students per year by raising $100 million to fund fellowships and scholarships in the UCLA College and $50 million for fellowships and scholarships in UCLA's 11 professional schools.
The Institute of Ethnomusicology, comparative study of world music, was established in 1960 by the pioneer in the field Mantle Hood. It was under his visionary leadership that the study of Indian music was developed within the institute.