Happy birthday Aashish Khan Debsharma (Hindi: आशिष खान देबशर्मा (born 5 December 1939) is an Indian classical musician, known for his virtuosity on the sarod. 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 Government of Indias highest honour in performing arts, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. Besides being a high-profile 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. Aashish Khan was born in 1939 at Maihar, a small princely state of British India, where his revered grandfather Ustad 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 Khans first wife. He was initiated into North Indian classical music at the age of five by his grandfather. His training (or taalim) later continued under the guidance of his father Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and his aunt, Annapurna Devi. Though the music school they represent is popularly known as Senia Maihar Gharana; it is essentially the traditional Senia Gharana. (The founder of this Senia Gharana or Senia School is believed to be the court musician of Mughal Emperor Akbar Mian Tansen. Senia Maihar Gharana follows the traditional Beenkar and Rababiya pattern of the Dhruvapada style of the original Senia Gharana. However, followers of the Senia Maihar School tradition have principally been responsible for a renaissance in Indian classical instrumental music in the twentieth century. 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. Under Pandit Ravi Shankar, he has worked as a background artist on musical products for both film and stage, including Oscar Winner Satyajit Rays Apur Sansar, Parash Pathar, Jalsha Ghar, and Sir Richard Attenborough’s film Gandhi. He has also worked as a background artist with Maurice Jarre on John Hustons film The Man Who Would be King, David Leans A Passage to India, and composed the music for Tapan Sinhas films, Joturgriha (he received Best Film Score Award for Jotugriha) and Aadmi Aurat. Aashish Khan has also pioneered the first Indo Jazz fusion project in 1969 in the US with Zakir Hussain which was named as Shanti with a mix of other Western jazz musicians and Indian artistes. 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. Source: Wikipedia youtu.be/XOqOldmgIUA
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 19:05:42 +0000