*** Welcome to piglix ***

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan

Ali Akbar Khan
Dia7275 Ali Akbar Khan r.jpg
Background information
Born (1922-04-14)14 April 1922
Origin Comilla, East Bengal (present day Bangladesh)
Died 18 June 2009(2009-06-18) (aged 87)
San Anselmo, California, United States
Genres Hindustani classical music
Occupation(s) Composer, Sarodiya
Instruments Sarod
Associated acts Allauddin Khan, Ravi Shankar

Ali Akbar Khan (14 April 1922–18 June 2009) was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod. Trained as a classical musician and instrumentalist by his father, Allauddin Khan, Khan also composed several classical ragas and film scores. He established a music school in Calcutta in 1956, and the Ali Akbar College of Music in 1967, which moved with him to the USA and is now based in San Rafael, California, with a branch in Basel, Switzerland.

Khan was instrumental in popularising Indian classical music in the West, both as a performer and as a teacher. He first came to America in 1955 on the invitation of violinist Yehudi Menuhin and later settled in California. He was a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Khan was accorded India's second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1989. Nominated five times for the Grammy Award, Khan was a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts's National Heritage Fellowship.

Ali Akbar Khan was born in the village of Shibpur, Nabinagar Upazila, Brahmanbaria, in present-day Bangladesh, (then Comilla, East Bengal), to renowned musician and teacher, Allauddin Khan and Madina Begum. Soon after his birth, Khan's family returned to Maihar (in present-day Madhya Pradesh, India) where his father was the primary court musician for the Maharaja of the princely state.


...
Wikipedia

...