Jon Higgins was one of the most intriguing wonders Indian Art Music saw in this era. An American who turned to learning Indian Music as a later-in-life pursuit, he astounded India with his success in completely absorbing the culture and techniques of Carnatic Music. The reproduction was true not just to the correctness of gamaka-accentuations or phonetic enunciations but the complete internalization of the language and culture-related flavors of the art, which form an inevitable part of any art music system even at its most autonomous interpretation. And this is achieved in a very short span of time under the able tutelage of T.Viswanathan, brother of the famed Balasaraswati.

He was perhaps the only example of such a rare achievement in the area of vocal music where the paucity of pedagogical techniques, in comparison to instrumental music, renders the task of emulating and reproducing nuances almost impossible for
a person who is alien to the culture.