Ali Akbar Khan Biography In English Life Story 1922-2009

• Ali Akbar Khan was an Indian 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, Alauddin Khan, he composed many classical ragas and film scores.
• He founded a music school in Calcutta in 1956 and the Ali Akbar College of Music in 1967, which moved with him to the United States and is now based in San Rafael, California, with a branch in Basel, Switzerland.
• Khan was instrumental in popularizing Indian classical music in the West as both a performer and a teacher.
• He first came to the United States in 1955 at 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.

Ali Akbar Khan Biography In English

Birth Details –

Place- Bangladesh

Date of Birth – 14 April 1922

Nationality -Indian

Family –

Mother- Madina Begum

Father- Alauddin Khan

Teacher – Aftabuddin Khan

Early Life And Training

• Ali Akbar Khan was born in Shibpur, Brahmanbaria, present-day Bangladesh, to Alauddin Khan and Madina Begum, a musician and teacher.
• Soon after his birth, Khan’s family returned to Maihar, where his father was the primary court musician for the princely state’s Maharaja.
• From an early age, Khan received training from his father on various instruments as well as vocal composition, but was eventually drawn to the sarod.
• Alauddin was a perfectionist and a strict executive, and Khan’s lessons began before dawn and often lasted up to 18 hours a day.
• Khan also learned to play the tabla and pakhawaj from his uncle, Aftabuddin Khan, from whom he visited Shibpur.
• During this period he met several prominent musicians, such as sarodist Timir Baran and flautist Pannalal Ghosh, who came to study with his father.

Career-

• After years of rigorous training, Khan gave his first performance in 1936 at the age of 13 at a music conference in Allahabad. conference; This was the first of many jugalbandis (duets) between the two musicians.
• In 1938 Khan gave his first recital on All India Radio (AIR), Bombay (accompanied by Alla Rakha on tabla), and starting in January 1940, he gave monthly performances on AIR, Lucknow.
• In 1943, on his father’s recommendation, Khan was appointed as the court musician of Umaid Singh, the Maharaja of Jodhpur.
• There, he taught and composed music in addition to singing, and was given the title of Ustad by the Maharaja.

• When the princely states were abolished with India’s independence in 1947 and Maharaja Hanwant Singh died in a plane crash in 1952, Khan moved to Bombay.
• In Bombay, he also played the sarod for a song in the 1955 film Seema, whose music was composed by Shankar Jaikishan. Later in 1993, he composed some of the music for Bernardo Bertolucci’s Little Buddha.
• In early 1945, Khan also began recording a series of 78 rpm discs at HMV Studios in Bombay.
• The record was a huge success in India, and the raga found a worldwide audience when a 22-minute rendition was re-recorded in 1965 for India’s Master Musicians LP – one of Khan’s seminal recordings.
• He performed in India and traveled extensively in the West. In 1956, Khan established the Ali Akbar College of Music in Calcutta, with the mission of teaching and spreading Indian classical music.
• He founded another school of the same name in Berkeley, California in 1967 and later moved it to San Rafael, California.

Awards –

• Padma Bhushan
• Macarthur Fellowship
• Grammy Awards

Other Information –

Date of Death – 18 June 2009

Place – San Anselmo, California, US

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