The most innovative
Afghan Rubab player
OF HIS GENERATION
A composer, vocalist, educator and musician born into a family steeped into musical tradition
Homayoun
Sakhi
“A brilliant virtuoso endowed with a charismatic musical presence and personality.”
Homayoun Sakhi (همایون سخی) is the most innovative Afghan rubab player of his generation—a brilliant virtuoso with a charismatic musical presence and personality. He is a composer, vocalist, and musician born into a family steeped in musical tradition. Born in Kabul in 1976, he was raised in one of Afghanistan’s leading musical families. From the age of ten, he studied rubab—a double-chambered lute and the national instrument of Afghanistan—with his father, Ustad Ghulam Sakhi, following the traditional ustâd-shâgird (Persian for “master-apprentice”) method.
In 1992, Homayoun and his family were forced to flee the civil war in Afghanistan, seeking refuge in Pakistan. Overnight, music was banned in Afghanistan, and to protect his beloved instrument, the rubab, Homayoun had to hide it beneath mattresses and blankets as they made their way to a refugee camp near Peshawar. Once in Peshawar, Homayoun’s musical talent quickly caught the attention of locals. His unique ability to blend traditional ragas with Afghan melodies made him a popular figure in the community. He soon found himself performing on both radio and television, sharing the stage with some of Pakistan’s renowned singers and musicians.
In 2001, Homayoun moved to the United States. He settled in Fremont, California, southeast of San Francisco. In Fremont, he brought with him his sophisticated and original rubab style. Homayoun quickly established himself as a leader of the local musical community, gaining national and international acclaim as a performer, teacher, and composer. He opened a school to teach music to children, recorded Afghan songs on compact discs, and became a sought-after performer; continuing his activities today, while devoting as much as eight hours a day to practicing the rubab.
As a composer, Sakhi has created works for the Kronos Quartet, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Hannibal Lokumbe, and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Sakhi has collaborated with celebrated musicians worldwide, such as Yo-Yo Ma and Ustad Farida Mahwash. In November 2014, he performed for India’s President Shri Pranab Mukherji and Afghan President Hamid Karzai at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, India. More recently, he performed at the Harvest Music Festival in Yinchuan, China.
In 2020, Sakhi founded the Rubab Academy, an institution dedicated to preserving and promoting the rich musical tradition of the Afghan rubab. Through the academy, he teaches a growing number of students worldwide, inspiring a new generation to embrace and carry forward this cultural heritage.
Homayoun revitalized a classical instrument that had fallen out of popularity. He pushed the rubab’s traditional limits, extending its possibilities and transforming how it is played. He plays the instrument’s sympathetic strings as well as the melody strings. Classic rubab players used only downward strokes with the plectrum, but he incorporated both upward and downward strokes. His style incorporates influences from the violin, guitar, and sitar. He studied music widely, including symphonic, contemporary Indian, and Western music, and developed techniques to adapt these modern styles to the classical Afghan instrument. He devoted time and effort to perfecting his unique style, complex picking techniques that use rhythmic syncopation and off-beat playing. He transformed the rubab from an accompaniment instrument into a musical centerpiece with a platform all its own.
Homayoun’s story illustrates the extraordinary challenges he endured in pursuing his art. Throughout the years of armed conflict in Afghanistan, times when music was censored and ultimately banned, the classical rubab style that he had devoted his career to survived and reached new creative heights. His performance style has been shaped not only by Afghan musical traditions but by his lively interest in contemporary music worldwide. His artistry shows how a visionary musician, working within a traditional idiom, can enrich and expand their expressive power while respecting the taste and sensitivity passed down from master musicians. His exceptional talent and dedication have led to successes on the concert stage, where he maintains an active performance schedule across cities around the world.
His talent has taken rubab around the globe, where his music has captivated audiences from all walks of life. His audiences have ranged from royals such as that of the Emir of U.A.E. and Qatar and His Highness Agha Khan IV, heads of states such as Aníbal Cavaco Silva, the president of Portugal, to spiritual leaders as the Dalai Lama. Sakhi’s music resonates with a broad range of audiences.
The most innovative
Afghan Rubab player
OF HIS GENERATION
Homayoun
Sakhi
“A brilliant virtuoso endowed with a charismatic musical presence and personality.”
Homayoun Sakhi (همایون سخی) is the most innovative Afghan rubab player of his generation—a brilliant virtuoso with a charismatic musical presence and personality. He is a composer, vocalist, and musician born into a family steeped in musical tradition. Born in Kabul in 1976, he was raised in one of Afghanistan’s leading musical families. From the age of ten, he studied rubab—a double-chambered lute and the national instrument of Afghanistan—with his father, Ustad Ghulam Sakhi, following the traditional ustâd-shâgird (Persian for “master-apprentice”) method.
In 1992, Homayoun and his family were forced to flee the civil war in Afghanistan, seeking refuge in Pakistan. Overnight, music was banned in Afghanistan, and to protect his beloved instrument, the rubab, Homayoun had to hide it beneath mattresses and blankets as they made their way to a refugee camp near Peshawar. Once in Peshawar, Homayoun’s musical talent quickly caught the attention of locals. His unique ability to blend traditional ragas with Afghan melodies made him a popular figure in the community. He soon found himself performing on both radio and television, sharing the stage with some of Pakistan’s renowned singers and musicians.
In 2001, Homayoun moved to the United States. He settled in Fremont, California, southeast of San Francisco. In Fremont, he brought with him his sophisticated and original rubab style. Homayoun quickly established himself as a leader of the local musical community, gaining national and international acclaim as a performer, teacher, and composer. He opened a school to teach music to children, recorded Afghan songs on compact discs, and became a sought-after performer; continuing his activities today, while devoting as much as eight hours a day to practicing the rubab.
As a composer, Sakhi has created works for the Kronos Quartet, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Hannibal Lokumbe, and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Sakhi has collaborated with celebrated musicians worldwide, such as Yo-Yo Ma and Ustad Farida Mahwash. In November 2014, he performed for India’s President Shri Pranab Mukherji and Afghan President Hamid Karzai at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, India. More recently, he performed at the Harvest Music Festival in Yinchuan, China.
In 2020, Sakhi founded the Rubab Academy, an institution dedicated to preserving and promoting the rich musical tradition of the Afghan rubab. Through the academy, he teaches a growing number of students worldwide, inspiring a new generation to embrace and carry forward this cultural heritage.
Homayoun revitalized a classical instrument that had fallen out of popularity. He pushed the rubab’s traditional limits, extending its possibilities and transforming how it is played.
He plays the instrument’s sympathetic strings as well as the melody strings. Classic rubab players used only downward strokes with the plectrum, but he incorporated both upward and downward strokes.
His style incorporates influences from the violin, guitar, and sitar. He studied music widely, including symphonic, contemporary Indian, and Western music, and developed techniques to adapt these modern styles to the classical Afghan instrument. He devoted time and effort to perfecting his unique style, complex picking techniques that use rhythmic syncopation and off-beat playing. He transformed the rubab from an accompaniment instrument into a musical centerpiece with a platform all its own.
Homayoun’s story illustrates the extraordinary challenges he endured in pursuing his art. Throughout the years of armed conflict in Afghanistan, times when music was censored and ultimately banned, the classical rubab style that he had devoted his career to survived and reached new creative heights. His performance style has been shaped not only by Afghan musical traditions but by his lively interest in contemporary music worldwide.
His artistry shows how a visionary musician, working within a traditional idiom, can enrich and expand their expressive power while respecting the taste and sensitivity passed down from master musicians. His exceptional talent and dedication have led to successes on the concert stage, where he maintains an active performance schedule across cities around the world.
His talent has taken rubab around the globe, where his music has captivated audiences from all walks of life. His audiences have ranged from royals such as that of the Emir of U.A.E. and Qatar and His Highness Agha Khan IV, heads of states such as Aníbal Cavaco Silva, the president of Portugal, to spiritual leaders as the Dalai Lama. Sakhi’s music resonates with a broad range of audiences.