“The world of music seems to have fewer and fewer borders these days. Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Zakir Hussain are three players who regularly cross the frontier.”
—NPR

If music is a universal language, then rhythm is arguably its vocabulary. This principle is on breathtaking display in The Melody of Rhythm, the 2009 genre-crossing album by Indian tabla legend and inveterate musical explorer Zakir Hussain, bluegrass-jazz-and-beyond banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck, and classical-meets-folk double-bass wizard Edgar Meyer. As in their unforgettable 2018 Washington Performing Arts appearance, joined then as now by the dazzling Indian bansuri (bamboo flute) player Rakesh Chaurasia, these renowned and accomplished artists—each an accomplished improviser—combine forces at Strathmore this February to make music that revels in cultural convergence while leaving borders far behind.

This performance is made possible through the generous support of Gordon and Lisa Rush.

This is one of twenty 2022/23 season performances included in Washington Performing Arts’s The World in Our City initiative, which promotes cross-cultural understanding and cultural diplomacy via the presentation of international visiting artists, globally inspired local programming, and the award-winning Embassy Adoption Program, a partnership with D.C. Public Schools.

Special thanks to the following lead supporters of Washington Performing Arts’s mission-driven work: Jacqueline Badger Mars and Mars, Incorporated; D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities; the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs Program and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; and the Dallas Morse Coors Foundation for the Performing Arts.

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