Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain passed away in the early hours of Monday morning at the age of 73 in San Francisco due to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, his family confirmed.
He is survived by his wife Antonia Minnecola; his daughters Anisa Qureshi and Isabella Qureshi; his brothers Taufiq Qureshi and Fazal Qureshi; and his sister Khurshid Aulia.
Hussain was admitted to the ICU of a hospital in San Francisco after experiencing heart-related issues, according to his friend and flautist Rakesh Chaurasia. "He is unwell and admitted in the ICU right now," Chaurasia said on Sunday.
Hussain's manager, Nirmala Bachani, mentioned that the 73-year-old music legend had been dealing with blood pressure issues. "He has been admitted to a hospital in San Francisco for a heart-related problem for the last two weeks," Bachani added.
Hussain, the eldest son of the legendary tabla player Ustad Allah Rakha, is one of India's most celebrated classical musicians and has been honoured with the Padma Shri in 1988, the Padma Bhushan in 2002, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2023.
He has collaborated with top Indian musicians such as Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and Shivkumar Sharma. He also collaborated with Western musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma, Charles Lloyd, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Mickey Hart, George Harrison and John McLaughlin.
Throughout his career spanning six decades, Hussain has also received five Grammy Awards, including three at the 66th Grammy Awards earlier this year. He is also the first Indian artiste to receive three Grammy Awards in one night.
He has also been honored with the Kyoto Prize in 2022 for his contributions "to the cultural and spiritual betterment of mankind." Hussain was also a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and later the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship.
In the United States, Zakir Hussain was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship in 1999 by the National Endowment for the Arts, the nation’s highest lifetime honor for traditional artists.
In 2017, he was honored with SFJazz’s Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his “unparalleled contribution to the world of music."
In 2022, he was awarded the Aga Khan Award for his “enduring contributions to the musical heritage of humanity, peerless musical mastery and sustained social impact.”