Teaching
Taranath Rao was a venerated curator of Indian percussion, but he is also remembered for his modern outlook on classical music, innovative approach to drumming, and progressive, systematic teaching style. Along with Jnan Prakash Ghosh of Calcutta, he helped pioneer many contemporary features of solo tabla drumming, such as duo (jugalbandi) performance. The dual-solo format was largely popularized by Rao's disciples Ravi and Shashi Bellare, leading tabla players of the 1950s and 60s, and later by contemporary master Alla Rakha with his son the prodigy Zakir Hussain.
In terms of sheer numbers, Rao was a prolific guru, introducing to some 2,000 students the legacy of traditional gharana masters. In addition to private "tuitions" from his home in Bombay, Taranath taught, lectured and gave examinations at institutions including Ravi Shankar's Kinarra School, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bhatkande University (Bombay and Lucknow), Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, and the Kala Academy in Goa.
For the last 12 years of his life, Taranath taught at CalArts in Los Angeles, where his younger brother Harihar Rao was heading the Ravi Shankar Music Circle. His disciples around the world, include Ravi Bellare, Shashi Bellare, Sadanand Naimpalli, Omkar Gulvady, Mohan Balvally, Uday Raikar, Maruti Kurdekar, Vijay Kangutkar, Balakrishna Iyer, Jayawant Bantwal, Anand Badamikar, Jef Feldman, Peter Fagiola, Roland Drogemuller, Gregg Johnson, Bengt Berger, Rupesh Kotecha, Narayan Kadekodi, Vilas Jadhav, Kishore Kulkarni and Leonice Shinneman. His tradition is carried on by the Peshkar Foundation.
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