Ustad Mohammad Omar
Encyclopedia
Early life and career
Mohammad Omar began music lessons under his father, Ustad Ibrahim, who taught him singing, sarodSarod
The sarod is a stringed musical instrument, used mainly in Indian classical music. Along with the sitar, it is the most popular and prominent instrument in the classical music of Hindustan...
, rubab and dutar
Dutar
The dutar is a traditional long-necked two-stringed lute found in Iran, Central Asia and South Asia...
. In the mid-20th century, he was Director of the National Orchestra of Radio Afghanistan, which brought together folk musicians from the different regions and distinct ethnic communities of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
.
In 1974, Ustad Mohammad Omar received a Fulbright-Hays Foreign Scholar Fellowship to teach at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
, making him the first Afghan musician to teach at a major university in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. On November 18, 1974, Ustad Mohammad Omar gave a public concert at the university, his first rabab performance in front of a Western audience; he was accompanied on tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
by Zakir Hussain
Zakir Hussain (musician)
Zakir Hussain , , is an Indian tabla player, musical producer, film actor and composer.-Early life:Hussain was born in Mumbai, India to the legendary tabla player Alla Rakha. He attended St...
. In 1978 he met the German jazz-rock groupe Embryo
Embryo (band)
Embryo is a musical collective from Munich which has been active since 1969, although its story started in the mid-1950s in Hof where Christian Burchard and Dieter Serfas met for the first time at the age of 10...
at the Goethe Institut in Kabul. The concert was filmed for the movie Vagabundenkarawane by Werner Penzel.