Iranian-American vocalist Katayoun Goudarzi feels Indian music can have global presence

Iranian-American vocalist Katayoun Goudarzi has had a tryst with India music, having collaborated with Grammy-nominated classical composer-sitarist Shujaat Husain Khan. And she’s quite impressed with how home-grown music in India now enjoys global presence.

“Indian music already has an impressive global presence, but I’m sure more outstanding cross-cultural collaborations by great artistes can bring even more attention to it,” says Goudarzi.

While she admits that she didn’t know much about the Indian music scene, she got a chance to discover it during her performances with Khan in the country before the pandemic struck last year.

“When I was performing with Shujaat, in India, it was impressive to see how every venue we were performing at was packed. It is wonderful to see that both in India and here in the US, people just love him and really appreciate his music,” she adds.

Goudarzi also has a few favourites from the Indian music industry. “I love watching and listening to the great Vilayat Khan and Shujaat Khan’s live performances in New York and London from the ‘90s. There are no words to describe those performances, just top-tier musicianship,” she tells us.

Talking about her latest collaboration with Khan, she says, “Shujaat is an outstanding musician and having had the opportunity to work with him for over a decade, and on this record, has been a pleasure. He’s considerate, kind and courteous with an unbelievable attention to details.”