Afghan rebâb virtuoso Ustad Mohammad Omar, who was born sometime in the early 20th century, came to the United States in 1974 to Seattle’s University of Washington as an artist-in residence in the ethnomusicology department. On 18 November 1974, he gave his only U.S. concert, at the university’s Meany Hall. He was accompanied by 24-year-old Zakir Hussain, a budding Indian tabla player. Hussain went on to become a world-renowned tabla virtuoso. Ustad Mohammad Omar returned to Afghanistan after his year in Seattle and died in 1980.
