Rashid Khan (musician)

Ustad Rashid Khan
Khan Performing at Rajarani Music Festival, Bhubaneswar(Jan 2017)
Background information
Origin	Badayun, UP, India
Genres	Hindustani classical music
Occupation(s)	Classical Vocalist
Years active	1977–present

Ustad Rashid Khan (Hindi: रशीद ख़ान,Bengali: রশিদ খান, Urdu: راشد خان‎) (born 1 July 1966) is an Indian classical musician in the Hindustani music tradition. He belongs to the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana, and is the great-grandson of gharana founder Inayat Hussain Khan. He is married to Soma Khan.

In a story told in several versions, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi once remarked that Rashid Khan was the "assurance for the future of Indian vocal music". He was awarded the Padma Shri, as well as the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2006.

Born in Badayun, Uttar Pradesh. He received his initial training from his maternal grand-uncle, Ustad Nissar Hussain Khan (1909–1993). He is also the nephew of Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan.

As a child he had little interest in music. His uncle Ghulam Mustafa Khan was among the first to note his musical talents, and for some time trained him in Mumbai.However, he received his main training from Nissar Hussain Khan, initially at his house in Badayun. A strict disciplinarian, Nissar Hussain Khan would insist on voice training (Swar Sadhana) from four in the morning, and make Rashid practice one note of the scale for hours on end. A whole day would be spent on practising just a single note. Although Rashid detested these lessons as a child, but the disciplined training shows in his easy mastery of taan (arpeggios) and layakaari today. It was not until he was 18 that Rashid began to truly enjoy his musical training.