Ali Akbar Khan

Born to the renowned Hindustani master Allaudin Khan, Ali Akbar Khan stood among the foremost musicians of the Eastern world. As a virtuoso on the sarod—the 25-stringed, lute-like Indian instrument—he introduced Northern Indian classical traditions to global audiences. A five-time Grammy nominee, he earned Yehudi Menuhin’s description as “an absolute genius, the greatest musician in the world.” His lineage reached back to the 16th-century court musician Mian Tansen, who served Emperor Akbar. Khan commenced musical study at age three, first pursuing vocal training under his father before learning drums from his uncle, Fakir Aftabuddin. Although he experimented with numerous instruments, the sarod ultimately suited him best; through daily regimens of 18 hours, he achieved full command of it. His initial public appearance occurred in 1936 at a concert in Allahabad. During the early 1940s he served as court musician to the Maharaja of Judhpur and received the honorific “Ustad,” meaning master musician.

Responding to an invitation from Menuhin, Khan arrived in the United States in 1955. He performed at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, issued the first Western recording of Indian classical music, and became the first Indian musician broadcast on American television through an appearance on Alistair Cooke’s Omnibus. In 1971 he joined his brother-in-law Ravi Shankar for George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden. Among his many honors were the President of India Award in 1963, the Padma Vibhusan in 1988, the Bill Graham Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993, and the Asian Paints Shiromani Hall of Fame Award in 1997. He also received the Kalidas Sanman from the Madya Pradesh Academy of Music And Fine Arts, became the first Indian musician to win a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” in 1991, and obtained a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts in 1997.

Khan established the Ali Akbar Khan College of Music in Calcutta in 1956. Beginning in 1965 he taught regularly in the United States, opening the Ali Akbar College of Music in Berkeley, California, two years later; the school relocated to San Rafael in 1968. He conducted six classes weekly for nine months each year. By the early 1990s additional branches operated in Fremont, California, and Basel, Switzerland. Soundtracks incorporating his playing appear in Chetan Anand’s Aandhiyan, Satyajit Ray’s Devi, and Bernardo Bertolucci’s Little Buddha. For the score to Khudita Pashan he was named Best Musician of the Year.