Asad Ali Khan Biography In English Life Story – 1937 – 2011

• Asad Ali Khan was an Indian musician who played the stringed instrument Rudra Veena. Khan performed in the Dhrupad style and was described by The Hindu as the best living Rudra Veena player in India.

Asad Ali Khan Biography In English

Birth Details –

Place– Uttar Pradesh, India

Date of Birth – 1 December 1937

Marital Status- Married

Nationality – Indian

Family –

Father – Sadiq Ali Khan

Son – Zaki Haider

Early Life –

• Khan was born in 1937 in Alwar in his family, the seventh generation of Rudra Veena players. His ancestors were royal musicians in the courts of Rampur, Uttar Pradesh and Jaipur, Rajasthan in the 18th century.
• His great grandfather Rajab Ali Khan was the chief of court musicians in Jaipur and owned village land.
• His grandfather Musharraf Khan was a court musician in Alwar, and he performed in London in 1886. Khan’s father Sadiq Ali Khan worked as a musician for the Alwar court and the Nawab of Rampur for 35 years.
• Khan grew up in a musical environment and was trained in the Binkar Gharana (stylistic school of Rudra Veena playing) of Jaipur and taught singing for fifteen years.

Career–

• Khan was one of the few active musicians who played the Rudra Veena and was the last surviving guru of the Khandar school, one of the four schools of Dhrupad. He performed in many countries including Australia, United States, Afghanistan and Italy and many other European countries and conducted music courses in the United States.
• Khan worked at All India Radio, taught sitar at the Faculty of Music and Fine Arts, Delhi University for 17 years and continued to train students privately after his retirement.
• Khan criticized the lack of desire among Indians to study Rudra Veena and the greater number of foreign students compared to Indian students.
• He was involved in the preservation of the instrument, which he believed was created by the god Shiva, and performed for Spike Mackay to promote Indian classical music to young Indians. Khan was a Shia Muslim.

Award –

• 2008 – Padma Bhushan
• 1977 – Sangeet Natak Akademi Award

Other Information –

• Date of death-14 June 2011
• Place – New Delhi, India

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