From the age of two or three, I remember that music was a way to feel at home in a place that was not necessarily home. My family immigrated [to America] in the Eighties and had essentially given up everything it knew.

When I went to primary school, I had to go to ESL, and on top of that I stuttered. These seeming limitations [led me] to express myself through music.

Qais Essar holding the rabab.

Qais Essar. Photo © Hello Jasmine Photography

At the age of about six, the first instrument I played was the sitar, and I learned to play an assortment of different instruments before adopting the rabab. With Afghan instrumentation, specifically, I learned the tanbur, which is a long-necked lute and the ‘grandfather’ of the sitar.

I didn’t just learn Eastern classical music, because my mother thought it would also be good to have a background in Western music and more of a rounded-out perspective. Therefore, at seven, I started to take violin lessons. Later, I took up the guitar.

One of the first rababs I played was by the luthier Ghulam Nabi,...