Sunday, August 16, 2026

A Cello Learns to Sing in a Language Built for Other Instruments

[photo credit: Sierra Madre Playhouse]

Absolute Focus and Chris Votek bring a rare Hindustani pairing to Sierra Madre Playhouse

The cello does not belong in a Hindustani raga. It has no traditional seat there, no centuries of repertoire, no established vocabulary of ornament. On Sunday afternoon at Sierra Madre Playhouse, one will take that seat anyway — wedged between a santoor and a pair of tabla and asked to hold its own.

Cellist Chris Votek joins Absolute Focus, the husband-and-wife duo of santoor player Kamaljeet Ahluwalia and tabla player Jas Ahluwalia, at 4 p.m. for a program of traditional Hindustani raga. The presenter describes the instrumental combination as one rarely heard together in the form.

Kamaljeet Ahluwalia began training at seven under sitar maestro Dharambir Singh and later studied with santoor maestro Harjinderpal Singh. Her most formative period came under the late Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. The santoor is a hammered dulcimer whose shimmering resonance is central to the Hindustani tradition. Jas Ahluwalia studied tabla under Ustad Tari Khan.

Votek is described by the presenter as one of very few cellists in the world fluent in Hindustani music. He has spent years adapting Gayaki-ang, the vocal-derived style, to the cello — its bends, its ornaments, its breath-shaped phrasing. Set against santoor and tabla, the instrument works as another voice in the call-and-response at the center of raga performance.

The program follows the music’s traditional arc rather than a sequence of separate pieces: a slow, meditative alap first, then denser rhythmic interplay building toward a crescendo.

The concert is part of the Playhouse’s Indian Classical Music Series, within a 2026 season the 99-seat, 1924-founded theater calls “Small Stage, Big World.”

Absolute Focus with Chris Votek will perform on Sunday, August 16 at 4 p.m. Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre. For more information, call (626) 355-4318 or visit sierramadreplayhouse.org. Tickets: $12 to $35.