Adnan Khan, Vinay Desai and Ustad Akram Khan play Oxford's Holywell Music Room on 18 November. Tickets £25 until 3 November, then £30, students £20.
Three musicians bring an evening of sitar, santoor and tabla to the Holywell Music Room on Holywell Street on Wednesday 18 November. Doors open at 6.45pm and the music runs from 7pm to 9.30pm.
The concert, A Hundred Strings in Oxford: Two Strings, One Pulse, is presented by KalaSudha, an organisation that puts on Indian classical music across the UK. Its flyer describes it as “an independent, unfunded organisation keeping serious live Indian classical music accessible”.
Who is playing
In KalaSudha’s own words:
“A Hundred Strings brings three musicians to the Holywell Music Room on Wednesday 18 November 2026. Adnan Khan, a Grammy-nominated sitar player, shapes his phrases the way a singer does. Vinay Desai plays the santoor of Kashmir, the instrument he learned from Padma Vibhushan Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. Ustad Akram Khan, seventh generation of the Ajrada gharana, plays tabla for both.”
The event page fills in the background. Adnan Khan plays in the gayaki ang, the approach that shapes the sitar after the singing voice. He took his first lessons from his grandfather, the late Ustad Zafar Ahmed Khan, and trains with his father, the sitar player Ustad Saeed Khan.
Vinay Desai is a direct disciple of Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, the event page says. The santoor, the hundred-stringed instrument of Kashmir that gives the tour its name, is struck with two light curved mallets.
Ustad Akram Khan learned from his great-grandfather, Ustad Mohammad Shafi Khan, and then from Ustad Niazu Khan, and according to KalaSudha teaches more than fifteen of the Ajrada gharana’s classic kaydas.
Two strings, one pulse
The title comes from the pairing. As Rajeev Kumar, co-director of KalaSudha, put it to us: “the sitar bends and slides between notes, the santoor cannot slide and moves in quick runs, and the tabla holds both together.”
The event page puts it this way: “The two instruments share a raga and take different routes through it.”
It is KalaSudha’s return to the room, a year after its Raga Unison concert brought bansuri and tabla to the same stage. The tour also plays Manchester, Bournemouth and London.
Tickets and getting there
- When: Wednesday 18 November 2026. Doors 6.45pm, music 7pm to 9.30pm.
- Where: Holywell Music Room, Holywell Street, Oxford OX1 3SB, part of Wadham College.
- Tickets: £25 early bird until 3 November, then £30; students £20. The booking page adds a fee, showing the early-bird ticket at £26.25 and the student ticket at £21 when we checked on 30 October.
- Book: kalasudha.com.
KalaSudha says wheelchair spaces and hearing-loop provision at the room are limited, and asks anyone with access needs to contact it before booking.
The flyer is ready to print at home or in the office: download the A4 flyer (PDF). For more Oxford events, see what’s on in Oxford.
Sponsored feature for KalaSudha
Have your say