Ustad Vilayat Khan
| Vilayat Khan | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Vilayat Khan |
| Born |
28 August 1928 Gouripur, Mymensingh, East Bengal |
| Died | 13 March 2004 (aged 75) |
| Genres | Indian classical music |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, sitar player |
| Instruments | Sitar |
| Years active | 1939–2004 |
Ustad Vilayat Khan (Bengali: বিলায়েত খাঁ Bilaeet Khã; 28 August 1928 – 13 March 2004) was one of India's well known sitar maestros. Along with Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Nikhil Banerjee and his younger brother Imrat Khan, Vilayat Khan helped introduce Indian Classical Music to the West.
He recorded his first 78-RPM disc at the age of 8, and gave his last concert in 2004 at the age of 75.
Vilayat Khan was born in Gouripur, Mymensingh in then East Bengal in British India and current Bangladesh. His father Enayat Khan was recognised as a leading sitar and surbahar (bass sitar) player of his time, as had been his grandfather, Imdad Khan, before him. He was taught in the family style, known as the Imdadkhani Gharana or Etawah Gharana, after a small city close to Agra where Imdad Khan lived.
However, Enayat Khan died when Vilayat was only nine, so much of his education came from the rest of his family: his uncle, sitar and surbahar maestro Wahid Khan, his maternal grandfather, singer Bande Hassan Khan, and his mother, Bashiran Begum, who had studied the practice procedure of his forefathers. His uncle, Zinde Hassan, looked after his riyaz (practice). As a boy, Vilayat wanted to be a singer; but his mother, herself from a family of vocalists, felt he had a strong responsibility to bear the family torch as a sitar maestro.
Vilayat Khan performed at All Bengal Music Conference, as his first concert, organized by Bhupen Ghosh in Kolkata with Ahmed Jan Thirakwa on tabla. His performance at the concert organized by Vikramaditya Sangeet Parishad, Mumbai in 1944 drew the headline "Electrifying Sitar". In the 1950s, Vilayat Khan worked closely with instrument makers, especially the famous sitar-makers Kanailal & Hiren Roy, to further develop the instrument. Also, he liked to perform without a tanpura drone, filling out the silence with strokes to his chikari strings.
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