Ali Akbar Khan

Khan got married three times in his life and had seven sons and four daughters in total with all of his partners.

He was settled in the Unites States for almost four decades before his death. He died of renal failure in 2009 in San Anselmo, in California.

Ali Akbar Khan was born in Comilla, present-day Bangladesh (then East Bengal), to Allaudin Khan and Madina Begum. His father was a well known musician and teacher and started training his son when he was just three years old.

Khan began to learn percussion from his uncle Fakir Aftabuddin. His uncle made sure that he fully understood vocal and various musical instruments so that he could get in depth knowledge of music. Along with his uncle, his father also kept teaching him until he passed away in 1972.

During the time when Khan was being taught, he came across several prominent musicians, like the sarod player Timir Baran and flutist Pannalal Ghosh. These musicians came to study with his father. After a while he was joined in his lessons by his sister, Annapurna Devi.

After learning music for several years and getting trained by the best in the business, Khan gave his very first public performance at a music conference in Allahbad in 1936. He was merely 13 years old at that time.

After this, Khan gave his first performance on air on All India Radio (AIR) in Bombay, Maharashtra in 1938. He was accompanied on the table by Alla Rakha and within a few years giving monthly performances on AIR became an usual thing for him. He was also getting regular on AIR, Lucknow.

In 1939, Khan supported to Ravi Shankar by playing sarod along with him at Ravi’s debut performance at the same conference where he first gave his debut performance - the music conference in Allahbad, Uttar Pradesh.

His father coaxed him into getting appointed as a court musician for the Maharaja of Jodhpur, Hanwant Singh in 1943. There he mainly taught music to other musicians and gave solo performances. It was Hanwant Singh who gave him the title of ‘Ustad’.

Ravi Shankar and Khan both left Maihar to initiate their professional careers as musicians in 1944—Shankar settled in Bombay and Khan became the youngest Music Director for AIR, Lucknow. He used to give solo performances and composed for the radio ensemble.

Khan had dedicated a good part of his life in promoting and preserving Indian traditional music and founded Ali Akbar College of Music not only in Calcutta but took it to the west as well. It was his efforts to get Indian traditional music the kind of recognition it deserves from the whole world.