Campus News
Area Couple Endows Chair In Indian Music At Uc Santa Cruz
SANTA CRUZ, CA–Nawab Hamid Ali Khan, ruler of the state of Rampur, India, in the early 1900s, was well known for his love and patronage of the arts. Now, halfway around the world and three generations later, the great-granddaughter of this respected Nawab and her husband are carrying on that tradition, providing funding that will […]
SANTA CRUZ, CA–Nawab Hamid Ali Khan, ruler of the state of Rampur, India, in the early 1900s, was well known for his love and patronage of the arts. Now, halfway around the world and three generations later, the great-granddaughter of this respected Nawab and her husband are carrying on that tradition, providing funding that will substantially expand the performance and instruction of Indian classical music at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
The couple are Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Talat and Kamil Hasan, of Saratoga, California. Their gift of $350,000 establishes the Kamil and Talat Hasan Endowed Chair in Classical Indian Music, which provides ongoing annual support for UCSC’s flourishing programs in Indian arts.
"Indian classical music is a remarkable art form," said Kamil Hasan. "It stands out from popular music because it not only pleases the mind and senses, it goes much deeper. It’s important to us to do our part to keep this tradition flourishing. We think UCSC is the right place to establish this endowment, both because of its proximity to Silicon Valley, which is the location of a large Indian American community, and because of the sincere commitment of [UCSC] Chancellor Greenwood and Dean Edward Houghton to create a major program in classical Indian arts and South Asia studies."
"We hope this endowment will do two things," said Talat Hasan. "First, that it will plant seeds for a center for Indian cultural studies, supporting not just music, but dance, drama, and the visual arts. And, secondly, that it will make these arts more widely available to future generations of students, including Indian American students. This is a wonderful tradition that traces back hundreds and hundreds of years, and it really needs to be nurtured and preserved."
"We are honored that the Hasans chose our campus as the home for their gift," said UCSC Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood. "Thanks to their generosity, UCSC can take an important step forward in its commitment to fostering the study and performance of the arts of India. We now have a total of $600,000 in endowment funding to support Indian classical music at UCSC, which lays an important cornerstone in our long-range plans to develop a thriving center for South Asia studies here."
This new endowment is the Hasans’ second gift to UCSC. The couple were also donors to the $250,000 Ali Akbar Khan Endowment for Classical Indian Music, established last year (other contributors were Sid and Anu Maitra, Arjun and Kiran Malhotra, and Shiv and Kiran Nadar). That endowment enriches courses in Indian classical music and has led to the presence on campus of Ali Akbar Khan, considered to be one of the world’s greatest living musicians. Khan was named Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Music at UCSC in September 1999. Since his affiliation with the campus, Khan has taught a class in North Indian music and presented a public concert here.
The Khan Endowment has special significance for Talat Hasan, who, as a young girl, heard stories of Khan’s father, the legendary sarod master Ustad Alauddin Khan, who, along with many other famous artists, performed many times in her grandfather’s palace, where he was a resident musician. The relationship created through the Khan Endowment carries on a tradition created halfway across the world more than a century ago.
"South Asia studies at UCSC really gain momentum with the establishment of the Hasan Endowed Chair," said Edward Houghton, dean of the arts at UCSC and a professor of music. Houghton announced that, in response to the Hasans’ gift, he is committing funding in the Arts Division that will support courses in the arts of India and will also lead to a full-time teaching position in Indian classical music. This position comes in addition to the activities that the new endowed chair will support. Initially, the position will be filled by distinguished visiting faculty members, and will be in place by fall 2001.
In recent years UCSC has expanded its programming in the arts of India as part of a planned curriculum expansion in South Asia studies. This academic initiative supports new curriculum, research, conferences, and distinguished visitors focusing on such diverse disciplines as history, economics, the arts, and sociology.
"Many Indian American entrepreneurs are endowing chairs and supporting other educational endeavors in this area," Talat Hasan said. But, she noted, "Most of us have been fortunate to make our money in technical fields, so we tend to support technical endeavors much more. Kamil and I felt that there weren’t going to be many people whose first thought was supporting the arts, so we thought we should try to take a lead in that area. We hope this endowment will inspire others to think about this cultural heritage and to expand it to other disciplines and other cultures of India, to preserve this very beautiful and ancient heritage."
Information on the Hasan Endowed Chair can be found online at: http://arts.ucsc.edu/hasan/welcome
Biographies of Kamil Hasan and Talat Hasan
Kamil and Talat Hasan have two daughters and live in Saratoga, California. They have recently purchased land in Santa Cruz county and intend to establish a home there as well. They are actively involved in charity and educational activities through the Hasan Family Foundation.
Kamil Hasan is a general partner in the San Jose-based venture company, Hitek Venture Partners. He received his B.S. in engineering from Aligarh Muslim University, India, in 1967, an M.S. degree in engineering from M.I.T, in 1969, and a Ph.D. degree in engineering from UC, Berkeley, in 1973. Following, he taught at the Indian Institute of Technology, Dehli, as an assistant professor of engineering and later at Stanford University as an Associate Professor of Engineering. For more than 25 years, Hasan has worked in the software industry. He founded Hitek Venture Partners in 1995, to invest in early stage companies in the internet, e-commerce, telecommunications and enterprise software areas. He has a portfolio of 35 companies and serves on the board of 5 of these companies.
Dr. Kamil’s articles have appeared in more than 50 technical and trade journals, and he is a recipient of a John F. Lincoln Foundation award for outstanding achievement in engineering design.
Talat Hasan is chairman and CEO of Sensys Instruments, a company she founded in 1996 to market products for the semiconductor manufacturing industry. She holds an M.A. in Physics from Oxford University and a B.Sc. in Physics from Aligarh Muslim University (India).
Prior to founding Sensys, she was vice president of corporate business development at Tencor Instruments (now KLA/Tencor), and, in 1983, was co-founder of Prometrix Corporation, serving as a board member and senior vice president of strategic planning when the company merged with Tencor. Previously, she worked as a scientist, conducting research in semiconductor characterization and process control and working for almost five years at Signetics Corporation/Philips Research Labs in Sunnyvale, California.
She currently serves on the board of directors of Microbar and the board of trustees of Castilleja School (a private school for girls) and of IBPW (Indian Business and Professional Women), and is a charter member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs). She is also active, with her husband, as an Angel Investor for start-up companies and a mentor to several budding entrepreneurs. Also with her husband, she is in the process of establishing the Nurul Hasan Educational Foundation (named after her late father, Professor Nurul Hasan, who Minister of Education in the cabinet of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s and was a governor of the State of West Bengal, India).