Ustad Aashish Khan

Aashish Khan Debsharma (born 5 December 1939) is an Indian classical musician, a player of the Sarode. He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2006 in the 'Best World Music' category for his album "Golden Strings of the Sarode". He is also a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. Besides being a performer, composer, and conductor, he is also an adjunct professor of Indian classical music at the California Institute of the Arts, and the University of California at Santa Cruz, in the United States.

• Family and life :
* Ustad Alauddin Khan tradition :
Aashish Khan was born in 1939 at Maihar, a small princely state of British India, where his well known grandfather Baba Alauddin Khan, founder of the "Senia Maihar Gharana" or "Senia Maihar School" of Indian classical music, was a royal court musician at that time. His mother the late Zubeida Begum was Ustad Ali Akbar Khan's first wife. He was initiated into Hindustani classical music at the age of five by his grandfather. His training (or taalim) later continued under the guidance of his father Ali Akbar Khan, and his aunt, Annapurna Devi. The "Senia Maihar Gharana" follows the traditional "Beenkar" and "Rababiya" pattern of the "Dhrupad" style.

• Career :
Aashish Khan grew up in Maihar and Calcutta performing Indian classical music among distinguished circles of connoisseurs. He gave his debut public performance at the age of 13, with his grandfather, on the All India Radio "National Program", New Delhi, and in the same year, performed with his father and his grandfather at the "Tansen Music Conference", Calcutta. Since then he has performed at major venues of classical music and world music both in the Indian subcontinent and abroad.

Aashish Khan is also a founder of the Indo-American musical group "Shanti" with tabla player Ustad Zakir Hussain in 1969, and later, of the fusion group, "The Third Eye". In "Shanti", Aashish Khan is featured playing the acoustic Sarode sometimes through a fender guitar amplifier with vibrato effect.

Under Pandit Ravi Shankar, he has worked as a background artist on musical products for both film and stage, including Oscar Winner Satyajit Ray's Apur Sansar, Parash Pathar, Jalsaghar, and Richard Attenborough's film Gandhi. He has also worked as a background artist with Maurice Jarre on John Huston's film The Man Who Would be King, David Lean's A Passage to India, and composed the music for Tapan Sinha's films, Joturgriha (for which he received Best Film Score Award) and Aadmi Aurat.

During 1989–1990, Aashish Khan served as the Composer and Conductor for the National Orchestra of All India Radio, New Delhi, India, succeeding musical stalwarts like sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar, and flautist Pandit Pannalal Ghosh.
To read more about him, click here » https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aashish_Khan

On his Birthday, Hindustani Classical Music And Everything wishes him a long, healthy and active musical life ahead. 🙂