Ted de Jong, born in Amsterdam in 1954, began studying the tabla at the age of fourteen. Among his teachers were the late Ustad Latif Ahmed Khan and Ustad Faiyaz Khan, who were largely responsible for training de Jong into one of the foremost Western tabla players of today. He has vast experience in the world of Classical Hindustani Music, accompanying many well known artists, including Sachdev, Prabhatre, Sruti Sadolikar, Ustad Rais Khan. Pt. Ram Naryan, Pt. Budhaditya Mukherjee, Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, and many others.



As well as being a performer, de Jong has lectured and taught at the Rotterdam Academy of Music and Dance in the Netherlands since 1987. In 1999 he became coordinator of the school’s prestigious Indian Music Department, which welcomes guest teachers like Ustad Faiyaz Khan, Pt. Buddhadev Dasgupta, Pt. Budhaditya Mukherjee, and Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia on a yearly basis.



For Ted de Jong, classical Indian music is the fundament of his musical training. In addition to his specialization in the art of tabla, de Jong has studied sitar as well as classical Indian vocal music, which he studied with the late Ustad Yunus Hussain Khan of the Agra Gharana. From this basis, de Jong has sought out new ways of presenting Indian music to a wider audience through experimental (fusion) projects with other traditions. His collaborations have included performing and producing work with Florian Friecke (Popol Vuh), Al Gromer Khan - although in a more classical context, and Klaus Wiese, with whom he produced several CDs. From 1980-85, as a multi-percussionist, he toured world-wide and released six albums (Polygram, EMI) with the group Flairck.



Ted de Jong began collaborating with Coen Helfenrath in 1991, working together on several projects and producing the CDs Tabla Trail, Translucid Memories, and Radiant Awakening. De Jong also worked with Iranian/German percussionist Afra Mussawisade on Praful's album "One Day Deep" (2001).