USTAD  AMJAD  ALI  KHAN

Ustad Amjad Ali Khan is acknowledged throughout
India as one of its foremost classical musicians and the
maestro of his chosen instrument, the Sarod. Born in
1945 in Gwalior, where his father was a musician to the
royal family, he made an early debut giving his first solo
recital at the age of 12 in 1958. He represents the sixth
generation of his family to inherit a classical tradition
that goes back through his father, the late Ustad Hafiz
Ali Khan to the era of the court musicians of the
Mughal Empire and the original 'Senia-Beenkar'
Gharana musical 'school' devoted to the tradition of the
legendary Mian Tansen, Ustadji learnt the Sarod from
his father.

By visiting Pakistan in 1981, he was the first Indian musician to break the cultural
silence between the two countries. He has widely travelled and has played in China,
the UK, the USA, Moscow, Germany and Japan. He is devoted to the cause of
popularising Indian classical music through his performances over the AIR and T.V.

In 1977, he founded the Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan Memorial Society which organises
concerts and also has an annual Hafiz Ali Khan award bestowed on outstanding
classical musicians in India and aboard.

He is the recipient of many awards and honours - the Padmashree in 1975, the
Sangeet Natak Academy Award in1989, the Tansen Award in 1989, the Padma
Bhushan in 1991 and the International Music Forum Award, Unesco in 1970, to
name a few.