Shawn Mativetsky
Montreal's Shawn Mativetsky has long been celebrated as one of Canada's leading ambassadors of the tabla, and next to his exceptional musicianship, it's his unquenchable curiosity that one most frequently hears praised. Mativetsky is an accomplished practitioner of Indian classical music, but is equally embedded in the contemporary music realm, where he has established himself as both a champion of living composers and a generous collaborator to the likes of Tim Brady, Nicole Lizée, and Dinuk Wijeratne. An avid improviser, he can also be found accompanying countless other artists across and beyond the spectrum between jazz, pop, and global traditions.
This may be his first foray into electronic music within recent memory, but anyone familiar with Mativetsky's output will tell you that he's no tourist anywhere he goes; his roots always run deep. Spending his youth steeped in the 8-bit timbres of the Atari 400, Nintendo Entertainment System, and early PCs, the 1990s saw him actively involved in the DIY electronic music scene that congregated around 'tracker' software, and was a key member of the online tracker collective NOiSE. In the early 2000s, he performed with Indo-electronic project, Ramasutra, and for the past several years, has been collaborating with live coder David Ogborn in their electronic music duo, very long cat.
Dynamic performer Shawn Mativetsky is a pioneer in bridging the worlds of Western and Indian classical musics. Acclaimed as a gifted soloist and a leading disciple of the renowned Pandit Sharda Sahai, Mativetsky is highly sought-after as both performer and educator. He teaches tabla and percussion at McGill University, while remaining a prominent advocate of the tabla and North Indian classical music through lectures, workshops, and performances throughout Canada and abroad.
Within the Hindustani tradition, Shawn regularly gives solo performances, as well as accompanying kathak dance and instrumental artists. Since 2003, Shawn has been affiliated with the Pandit Ram Sahai Foundation (UK/India), and in the summers of 2006 and 2008, hosted tabla maestro Pandit Sharda Sahai's annual summer tabla workshop. Since 2011, Shawn has also been hosting his own annual summer tabla workshop at McGill University. In recent years, he has been working closely with santoor player Jonathan Voyer, sitarist Uwe Neumann, and kathak dancer Sudeshna Maulik. He has also performed alongside Pandit Satish Vyas.
As an ensemble musician, Mativetsky currently performs in a trio alongside harpist Sarah Pagé and Persian santurist Amir Amiri, violinist Parmela Attariwala's cross-cultural Attar Project, Indo-fusion group Ragleela, a tabla / electronic music duo with live coder David Ogborn, the improv trio Of Sound, Mind and Body, with Tim Brady and Helmut Lipsky, and percussion group Ensemble Duniya.
