Maestro Ali Akbar Khan's Centennial Concerts PDT

The 4th Concert in Our Centennial Celebration!

Enjoy a special summer performance in our Centennial celebration series this July! We are so grateful to everyone who has continued to join us for our monthly concerts in honor of Maestro Ali Akbar Khan’s 100^th birthday. We are keeping the season rolling with a brand-new performance.

These online performances are a tribute to the life, teachings, and music of Maestro Khan, one of the greatest sarod players of our time. The fourth concert in our series will take place online, on Saturday, July 23^rd at 7:00 pm (worldwide).

This month’s concert will begin with a performance by sitarist Shakir Khan, accompanied by Anubrata Chatterjee on tabla. Finishing the evening will be a tabla solo by Pandit Kumar Bose, who will be accompanied on tabla by his nephew, Rohen Bose, and on harmonium by Ajay Joglekar.

These performances are hosted by Maestro Khan’s school, the Ali Akbar College of Music—a non-profit organization seeking to spread the teachings of this ancient tradition to any and all who wish to learn. For more information about upcoming events throughout this Centennial year, please visit aliakbarkhan.com.

Meet the Artists

 

Shakir Khan is one of the most promising young exponents of the legendary Etawah Gharana, energetically following in the musical footsteps of his prodigious father and guru—the sitar maestro, Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan. Indeed, Shakir represents the eighth generational link in an unbroken chain of musical talent and tradition, poured exclusively into the sitar and surbahar; a chain that includes, besides Ustadji, the musical legacy of Ustad Aziz Khan (Shakir’s paternal grandfather), and that of the patriarchal surbaharist Ustad Wahid Khan (Shakir’s great grandfather). Great Ustad Vilayat Khan is his grand uncle.

As might be expected from such a pedigreed musician, his talent surfaced early in life. Shakir gave his first public performance at the age of eleven. Talent, however, is not enough to master the Indian classical tradition, and under the careful tutelage of his father, Shakir matured gradually through study, countless hours dedicated to practice, and frequent recitals. The work paid off, and in recent years Shakir has performed brilliantly for prestigious music conferences in India, including the Dover Lane Music Conference (Kolkata), Sawai Gandharva music festival (Pune), the Saptak Music Festival (Ahmedabad), Bombay Festival (Mumbai), the Tansen Music Festival (Gwalior), the Shankarlal Music Festival (Delhi) and many more. He has also performed extensively worldwide, bringing the joy and subtlety of the Etawah Gharana to audiences in the US, Canada and Europe – the latter including a performance at the famous Woodstock Festival in Poland in 2008.

More at Shakir Khan | The Official Website

 

Anubrata Chatterjee is regarded today as one of the finest tabla players of his generation. Son of the world-renowned tabla maestro, Pandit Anindo Chatterjee, Anubrata was nurtured from day one to be a tabla player. In 1992, he had the rare fortune of being the youngest and last “Ganda-Bandh” disciple of the great guru Jnan Prakash Ghosh. Later on, Anubrata continued to study under his father. At his very first public performance, he accompanied Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, and since then Anubrata has played many tabla solos and duets with his father. He also regularly accompanies musicians, including Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Ustad Rais Khan, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, Ustad Shahid Parvez, and many more all over the world.

Anubrata made his international debut with a solo performance at the B.B.C. World Radio in the UK, in 1991. Since then, he has performed in many countries around the world, including the US, Greece, Jordan, Egypt, Croatia, Israel, Germany, France, Scotland, Switzerland, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Oman. Anubrata has performed in major international festivals and venues as well, such as: Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center of Performing Arts, N.A.B.C. Houston, the Esplanade Theaters, World Percussion Festival in Chicago, the Jerash Festival, the Corfu Festival, the Dubrovnic Festival, and at the Rietburg Museum in Zurich.
 

Pandit Kumar Bose is an Indian tabla maestro and composer of Indian classical music. Bose belongs to the Benaras Gharana style of tabla playing. Having honed his skills under the tutelage of the legendary Pandit Kishan Maharaj, Pandit Bose rose to prominence with his flamboyant performances with Pandit Ravi Shankar. In a career spanning more than four decades, Pandit Kumar Bose has established himself as one of the leading exponents of the tabla and an internationally recognized face in the world of Indian Classical Music. He received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2007.

Bose’s first teacher was his father, Biswanath Bose—a distinguished table player himself. After his father’s untimely passing, he was taught by the highly respected Kishan Maharaj. Bose has been applauded for evolving a distinctive style of his own without diluting the purity of the tradition. Performing both as a soloist and an accompanist, Bose has been devoted to the classical table for 35 years and is considered one of the most powerful players alive today.

In addition to a 10-year tour as the tabla accompanist to Pt. Ravi Shankar from 1984 to 1994, he has performed and composed with musicians globally. Over the past 40 years, he has also performed and recorded in duets with his guru. From the Benaras Gharana, he has played with Vidhushi Girija Devi, Pts. Rajan and Sajan Mishra, Pt. Kanthe Maharaj, and Pt. Kishan Maharaj.
While he has collaborated with leaders in jazz, pop and rock, it was his duet with Iranian thumba player, Professor Semurani, that drew praise. Bose's collaborations have given an international reputation as a great musician.

Born into a family of legends, Rohen Bose’s fate brought him under magnanimous pillars of music. His father, Pandit Debojyoti Bose – a sarod player himself, from the Senia Bangash Gharana – is also a brilliant composer, lyricist, and knowledgeable tabla player. Rohen started his training under his father at a very early stage in his life.

His musical acumen grew when he began his tutelage under his elder uncle, Pt. Kumar Bose, the torchbearer of the Banaras Gharana and one of the finest and most creative tabla maestros of all time. Pt. Bose has trained him to become his deserved legatee. He has also taken training on accompaniment from his younger uncle, Acharya Jayanta Bose.

Ajay Joglekar has a natural gift for Harmonium playing. He has been performing and arranging music for the last 20 years. Through his dedication and practice, he has created a style and technique that is uniquely his own. Ajay has undergone training from renowned Harmonium player Pandit Tulsidas Borkar for many years. He has also been in association for many years with internationally acclaimed Indian classical vocalist, Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty—accompanying him on the Harmonium in his major concerts both in India and abroad.

During his career, he has had many opportunities to accompany (both on Harmonium and key board) great artists, such as: Pandit Jasraj, Gansaraswati Kishori Amonkar, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Bharatratna Ustad Bismillah Khan and Lata Mangeshkar, Suresh Wadkar, and famous Ghazal singer Gulam Ali.
 

About Maestro Ali Akbar Khan

Ali Akbar Khan (known more familiarly as Khansahib) was regarded as a “musician’s musician.” He was the master of the sarod (a 25-stringed, fretless instrument), in the Maihar gharana (ancestral tradition), and was known for his incredible breadth of artistry and knowledge. He was born in the village of Shibpur, in present-day Bangladesh on April 14th, 1922, and was raised by his father, Acharya Baba Allauddin Khan, and his mother, Madina Begum.

Khansahib began his studies with his father at the tender age of 3, learning vocal music. The classical music of North India is among the oldest continual musical traditions in the world, dating back thousands of years, and his father is acknowledged as one of the greatest figures in North Indian music of all time. Their family traces its gharana from Mian Tansen—a 16th century musical genius and court musician for Emperor Akbar—to Mohammed Wazir Khan, who was court musician of Rampur State and Baba Allauddin Khan’s guru. In olden times, this music was considered close to magic; there are many accounts of it healing the ailing, as well as starting fires and bringing rain. The music could be used as medicine, and for this reason it must be studied seriously and with intense dedication. 

Khansahib would go on in life to be awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award in India, followed by the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest. In 1971 he performed at Madison Square Garden for the Concert for Bangladesh, along with Ravi Shankar, Alla Rakha, and Kamala Chakravarty; other musicians at the concert included George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr. Khansahib received the illustrious MacArthur Fellowship in 1991—the first Indian musician to be awarded the “genius grant.” In 1997, Khansahib received the National Endowment for the Arts’ prestigious National Heritage Fellowship; this is the United States’ highest honor in the traditional arts. He also received five Grammy nominations over the course of his life.

For more information about Khansahib’s incredible life and works, please visit aacm.org

About the AACM

The Ali Akbar College of Music was founded in 1967 by the legendary sarod Maestro Ali Akbar Khan, in Berkeley, California. The following year, it was relocated to Marin County—eventually landing in San Rafael, where it has remained.

During Ali Akbar Khan’s career, he often dreamed of being able to open a school of music; an institution where musicians and music lovers alike could exist together and be surrounded constantly by their shared interests. After opening his first school in Calcutta in 1956, Khansahib was drawn to California and the incredible interest he found when visiting the Bay Area. It was his father, the esteemed Acharya Baba Allauddin Khan, who instilled in Khansahib the importance of spreading and teaching this music to any and all who wish to learn. His influence was the basis for Khansahib’s vision and remains as the mission statement of the AACM.

More at aacm.org