G.S. Sachdev studied North Indian classical bansuri (bamboo flute) with Vijay Raghav Rao for twelve years in Delhi, India and with Pandit Ravi Shankar for eight years in Bombay, India. In 2007, Sachdev taught apprentice, Sheela Bringi as part of ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program.
Joti Singh studied Guinean dance with master artist Alseny Soumah as part of ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program in 2007. Soumah’s family taught him to dance when he was a small child in Conakry, Guinea, and he performed with a neighborhood group before dancing professionally with Ballets Merveilles and Les…
Cher Ker Thao (Fresno) will study traditional Hmong bamboo flute with master artist Pao Xiong (Fresno). Xiong learned to play the flute from his father when he was growing up in Laos. He has been playing for over thirty years and performs regularly at community celebrations and for the local…
South Indian Classical Carnatic music is one of the oldest systems of music in the world. The violin found position in the Carnatic form within the last 300 years. The Lalgudi system of playing the violin is very advanced and is popular for its ability to mimic vocal music. Largely…
Ruth Yafonne Chen (San Francisco) will study Chinese Wushu (sword dance) with Ling Mei Zhang (San Francisco). Zhang studied with masters Liu Yuhua and Lee Wenjin in Tian Jinh and became the double straight sword Wushu champion for all of China in 1975. She has taught martial arts for over…
Sabrina Hou was a master artist for ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program in 2007 with apprentice, Janice Ng. Hou studied Kunqu opera, the oldest form of Chinese folk opera, at the Beijing Opera Conservatory and performed with the Beijing Northern Kunqu Opera Theater before moving to the United States ten…
Master artist Fujima Kansuma and apprentice Melody Takata participated in Round 7 of ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program, conducting an apprenticeship in Japanese Nihon Buyo, or Japanese classical dance. Fujima Kansma is no ordinary figure. Surmounting a series of challenges and discouragements, her long career reflects extraordinary focus and…
Korean Pojagi and Chogak-Po
Sahab Motallebi began playing the tar (a six-stringed plucked instrument) as a child and attended the National Iranian Music Conservatory in Tehran, the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in Russia, and RGS University in Turkey. Mehrdad Jahangiri studied the Persian tar with master artist Sahab Motallebi in 2007 as part of …
Gardena-based master kutuu player Katsuko Teruya Arakawa served as a master artist in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program in 2008 with apprentice Pamela Joy Afuso of Los Angeles. The Okinawan kutuu, more commonly known elsewhere in Japan as the koto, is a thirteen-stringed Paulownia wood zither played by…
