Aashish Khan
|
Aashish Khan playing a sarod. |
Ustad Aashish Khan (born
1949) is considered one of
India's greatest living
sarod players.
Aashish Khan was initiated into
North Indian classical music at the age of five by his grandfather,
Ustad Allauddin Khan, also a sarod player and the founder of the
Senia Maihar School of Music. His training continued under the guidance of his father
Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and his aunt,
Annapurna Devi (a
sitar player and former wife of the international figure, Pandit
Ravi Shankar), presently the leading exponents of the Senia Maihar School.
Aashish gave his first public performance at the age of 13, with his grandfather, on the
All India Radio "National Program",
New Delhi, and in the same year, performed with his father and his grandfather at the "Tansen Music Conference",
Calcutta.
Besides his virtuosity as a traditional
sarod maestro, Aashish is also a pioneer in the establishment of world music genre, as founder of the Indo-American musical group "Shanti" with distinguished
tabla player
Ustad Zakir Hussain in
1969 and
1970 and later, fusion group, "The Third Eye"; and composed a Sarod
Concerto in "
raga" form.
With Pandit
Ravi Shankar, he has worked on many musical products for both film and stage, including
Oscar Winner
Satyajit Ray's "Apur Sangsar", "Parash Pathar" and
Sir Richard Attenborough's film "Gandhi". He has also worked with Maurice Jarre on John Houston's film "The Man Who Would be King", David Lean's "A Passage to India", and composed the music for Tapan Sinha's films, "Joturgriha" and "Aadmi Aurat".
In
1989, Khan was appointed to the prestigious post of the Composer and Conductor for the National Orchestra of
All India Radio,
New Delhi,
India, succeeding Pandit Ravi Shankar.
Aashish has collaborated with such diverse
western musicians as
John Barham,
George Harrison,
Ringo Star,
Eric Clapton,
Charles Lloyd,
John Handy,
Alice Coltrane,
Emil Richards,
Dallas Smith,
Don Pope,
Jorge Strunz,
Ardeshir Farah, and the
Philadelphia String Quartet.His recordings include: The Wonder Wall, Young Master of the Sarod, California Concert, Sarod and Piano Jugalbandi, Shanti, Live at the
Royal Festival Hall London, Homage, Inner Voyage, Monsoon Ragas, The Sound of
Mughal Court, and the latest, Jugalbandi
Sarod &
Sarangi Duet, with
Ustad Sultan Khan.
Aashish Khan is a musical
guru and teacher, formerly on the faculties of the
Ali Akbar College of Music in
San Rafael, California, and the
University of Washington,
Seattle. While pursuing a busy career as a concert artist and composer, he teaches students throughout the
US,
Canada,
Europe, and
Africa, as well as
India. Aashish Khan is presently also working on collecions at his father
Ustad Ali Akbar Khan's college archive at San Rafael, California.
*[
1] Biography at Sony Music India
