Shankh Lahiri and Hindol Deb play International Guitar Festival Credit: Courtesy photo

Timucua Arts Foundation is bringing the International Guitar Festival back to Orlando starting this week. The organization is presenting four weekends of guitar performances from artists around the world and genres spanning just as far. Orlando Weekly spoke with headliner Shankh Lahiri, who will be playing as a duo with Hindol Deb, ahead of the first weekend of concerts.

Lahiri is a world-touring musician who is a master of tabla drums and CEO of his nonprofit Shruti Foundation and Shruti School of Music. His musical partner for the gig is Hindol Deb, Germany-based sitar player and Master of Jazz Composition at Hochschule für Musik. The duo presents their show “The Music for Soul” Saturday, blending traditional Indian raga music with contemporary sounds.

“The venue is very musical and the vibe is cozy and quality sound. I’ve played many times with my band: world fusion, jazz, Indian music,” says Lahiri. “I am very excited, because this time we are at the International Guitar Festival and we are playing sitar, which is kind of like an Indian guitar, but people will have very different experiences with the music so we are really excited for this.”

Lahiri and Deb met as young artists in Mumbai, India, parting ways when Lahiri moved to the U.S. and Deb moved to Germany. The duo’s long history and friendship are essential to their musical chemistry,

“He lives in Germany and we have experience working with world musicians, jazz musicians and all other cultural folk artists. But we are playing traditional Indian classical music, which is very similar to jazz music in improvisation,” explains Lahiri. “So that part is what the people who’s first time experiencing our music. They can connect with that aspect of our musical approach.”

The International Guitar Festival gives Lahiri and Deb the opportunity to showcase their combined instrumental talents through the sitar and tabla, as well as Lahiri’s vocal composition.

“After I moved to the U.S. and settled here, he moved to Germany to do his jazz degree. Later on, we reconnected and for the last three years, I’ve been touring to Germany and he’s also coming to the U.S., we are meeting each other and we are playing,” says Lahiri. “My father was a great sitar player, my brother was also a sitar player; I really understand sitar music very well, so it’s easy to communicate and you can see that throughout the music.”

Aside from Lahiri’s busy touring schedule, he runs a musical organization based in Tampa: The Shruti Foundation and Shruti School of Music. The school participates in festivals and workshops around the world, offering students training in classical Indian music and dance. The curriculum incorporates tabla, vocal, harmonium and sitar, and gives students the opportunity for recitals and showcases.

“My mission statement for this organization is ‘uniting the world through the power of music’,” says Lahiri. “This is the one language we have, we speak with these musical notes and rhythmic fractions. That is what I see throughout the world and it’s much more vibrant now.”

Lahiri is passionate about building communities around world music and Indian classical music as he builds his foundation and continues to perform in festivals. Creating space for young people in the arts is essential to connecting with a universal human language.

“When they [young people] see cultural music, sometimes they feel like it’s very different, and maybe they will not understand,” says Lahiri. “But when they share all this experience, it feels like it’s one place and it’s very inspiring to the younger generation, they feel it’s connected, they feel it’s very new and fresh.”

Timucua Arts, celebrating their 25th anniversary this year, currently has tickets available for individual shows and full weekend passes for the International Guitar Festival. Other headliners over the course of the festival include Chaz Underriner and his multimedia guitar setup, Nick Scout and his harp guitar, as well as Hiroya Tsukamoto and his finger-picking stylings. Performances will be hosted at the Timucua White House, and guests are encouraged to bring a bottle of wine or a nonalcoholic beverage to share. Discounted tickets are available to teachers, students, members, frontline workers, veterans and seniors.

Lahiri and Deb’s performance, “The Music for Soul,” will take place Saturday, Aug. 2, at 7:30 p.m. at the Timucua Arts house. With their blend of classical Indian and contemporary improvisational styles, the duo promises a transcendent opening weekend to the International Guitar Festival’s monthlong celebration.

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This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2025.