Josh Feinberg

Josh began his musical training at 4 years old with western classical and jazz on piano and bass in New York City, studying with some of the most accomplished musicians on the scene including Dave Holland, Kenny Wheeler, Ben Monder, Paul Bley, Drew Gress, Bob Bowen, Dan Weiss, and Jacob Sacks among others. He was hailed as a prodigy performing in jazz venues and concert halls across the New York area including Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, and many others. In his teens, Josh fell in love with the music of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, and shifted his focus to sitar and Hindustani music while pursuing his Bachelors degree from New England Conservatory.

Josh is a student of the Maihar Gharana (school of playing) and has earned the love and respect of connoisseurs of Hindustani music, as well art-music communities around the world. One of the first non-Indian musicians to be accepted as a leading performer, he has learned with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan as well as Ust. Aashish Khan, Sri Alam Khan, Pt. Tejendra Majumdar, Dr. Peter Row, Dr. George Ruckert, Sri James Pomerantz, Sri Warren Senders and Smt. Vijaya Sundaram. Josh has also learned tabla and attended workshops with Pt. Anindo Chatterjee.

Josh has been dazzling audiences around the world for 20 years. In 2019 Josh had 3 international tours including 25 concerts in 28 days for his India tour at some of the leading venues in the country. His other 2019 tours included 77 concerts in the United Kingdom, Australia, and concerts throughout the USA, making him one of the most in-demand sitarists currently performing. Josh is also one of very few young musicians who has performed with most of the top tabla artists in the world including Pt. Swapan Chaudhuri, Pt. Anindo Chatterjee, Pt Kumar Bose, and others. Josh is a regular at the Chicago World Music Festival and has performed for the Lotus World Music Festival, Harvard University, New England Conservatory, and countless other venues and festivals around the world.

Josh recorded his debut album, Homage, featuring tabla maestro Swapan Chaudhuri in 2013 and released his second album, One Evening in Spring, in November 2014 featuring tabla maestro Anindo Chatterjee. His album with Pt. Anindo Chatterjee, A Fallen Blossom in the Thorns, was released in early 2017 to great acclaim. Josh’s next album is set for release by Australian record label Worlds Within Worlds in 2020, and was recorded in the UK in March 2019 with Ustad Shahbaz Hussain.

Josh has accompanied Sri Alam Khan, the son of Ust. Ali Akbar Khan, in the US and India at prestigious venues such as the Saptak Festival in Ahmedabad, and the Dover Lane Music Conference in Kolkata. (Saptak and Dover Lane are two of the biggest Hindustani music festivals in the world with thousands of people in attendance.) Josh also accompanied Alam-ji for a for a national broadcast for Doordarshan, one of the largest TV networks in India. Josh has performed as a soloist all over the world organizations including the Chicago World Music Festival, Lotus World Music Festival, Milapfest UK, Durham University in the UK, Purdue University, The Saptak Music Festival, Prithvi Theater in Mumbai, Chowdhury House Music Conference in Kolkata, the Rahimat Khan Music Festival in Dharwad, Basant Bahar in San Francisco, The Music Circle in LA, Ragamala in Seattle, Kalakendra in Portland, Chhandayan in New York City, Harvard University, ITCSRA in Kolkata, SPICMACAY in Delhi, Sangit Mahabharati in Mumbai, Ragamala Toronto, Chhandayan NYC, and the Ravi Shankar Institute for Music and Performing Arts in Delhi. Josh’s concerts have been very well received, garnering rave reviews, especially in Kolkata and Pune. He has been hailed as the torchbearer for the Pt. Nikhil Banerjee baj of the Maihar Gharana.

In 2013, Josh published a sitar method book for the Hal Leonard Corporation, the world’s largest music publisher. Josh has performed throughout the US, Canada, India and Europe and has also collaborated with artists such as Alam Khan, Savion Glover, Richie Barshay (Herbie Hancock), Patrick Lamb, Gideon Freudmann (with music featured on the Showtime drama Weeds), David Ornette Cherry (Don Cherry), and many others. Josh has a Bachelors in Music from New England Conservatory, and a Masters of Fine Arts from Goddard College. Josh has served as a visiting lecturer at Harvard University, New England Conservatory, University of Florida Gainesville, University of Hawaii Honolulu, University of Chicago, and many others. He currently teaches at Lewis and Clark College, and Reed College in Portland, and has offered courses at the University of Oregon and Marylhurst University. He has also served as a graduate advisor for Prescott College.

Josh maintains a private teaching schedule both in person and online to students around the world. He also serves as the executive director for Jalsaghar, a 501c3 non-profit he established in 2017 to promote South Asian classical music. When not touring, Josh splits his time between Portland, Oregon and New York City.