Ali Akbar Khan, born on 14 April 1922, in Shibpur, Bengal, India [now in Bangladesh], was a
composer, virtuoso sarod player, and teacher, active in presenting
classical Indian music to Western audiences. Khan’s music is rooted in the
Hindustani (northern) tradition of Indian music.
Khan was trained by his father, the master Alauddin Khan, and
began performing at age 13, soon becoming the court musician to the maharaja of
Jodhpur. He remained in that position for seven years, until the death of the
maharaja, at which time the state conferred on him the title of master musician
(ustad). In 1955 the violinist Yehudi Menuhin invited
him to New York City, and thereafter he often performed and recorded in
the West, frequently in collaboration with his brother-in-law, the composer and
sitarist Ravi
Shankar. As a composer, Khan is known for his film scores—notably for
Satyajit Ray’s Devi (1960)
and the Ismail Merchant–James Ivory production The
Householder (1963)—and as the creator of many ragas. Khan was
the first Indian musician to record the long, elaborate manifestations of
Indian music performances; among his many albums are The
Forty-Minute Raga (1968) and Journey (1990).
He founded music schools in Kolkata (Calcutta; 1956); San Rafael, Calif.
(1967); and Basel, Switz. (1985). In 1991 he received a MacArthur Foundation fellowship.
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