Teed Rockwell

Teed Rockwell had over a hundred classes in Hindustani Classical Music with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and also studied extensively with Ustad Shahid Parvez, Pandit Habib Khan, and Ustad Salamat Ali Khan. He is the first person to play Indian Classical Music on the Touchstyle Veena, a guitar-like fretboard played by tapping the strings simultaneously with both hands. After years of practice and performance, Rockwell has developed a style which adapts the deep and profound nuances of the Hindustani tradition to this brand new instrument.

Many Indians have said that hearing ragas played on Rockwell's touchstyle veena gave them a greater appreciation of their own traditional music. ?For me, ragas are the most complete music of all?, says Rockwell, ?They have the intellectual subtlety of quantum physics, the spiritual profundity of the Vedas, and the heartfelt emotion of a lover's cry. So much of our art and music separates these elements. A great performance of a raga brings all of them together in a single moment.?