25 Facts About Aashish Khan

Aashish Khan was an Indian classical musician and player of the sarod.

Aashish Khan was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2006 in the 'Best Traditional World Music Album' category for his album "Golden Strings of the Sarode".

Aashish Khan was a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award.

Beyond Indian classical music, he and his brother Pranesh Aashish Khan composed disco music for the album Disco Jazz, sung by Rupa Biswas.

Aashish Khan was born to a Bengali Muslim family in 1939 at Maihar, a small state of British India, where his grandfather Alauddin Aashish Khan, founder of the "Senia Maihar Gharana" or "Senia Maihar School" of Indian classical music, was a royal court musician.

Aashish Khan was initiated into Hindustani classical music at the age of five by his grandfather.

Aashish Khan was divorced and had two children, Faraz and Nusrat Khan.

Aashish Khan grew up in Maihar and Calcutta performing Indian classical music.

Aashish Khan 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.

Aashish Khan was 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 guitar amplifier with a vibrato effect.

Aashish Khan has played 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 and Aadmi Aurat.

Aashish Khan was a music teacher, later serving as an adjunct professor at both the Indian Classical Music at the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles, US, and at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Aashish Khan taught at the faculties of the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California, University of Alberta in Canada and the University of Washington, Seattle.

Aashish Khan later divided his time principally between Calcutta and California, where most of his students and disciples were located.

Aashish Khan established a school under his name in Kolkata: Aashish Khan School of World Music.

Aashish Khan has collaborated with John Barham, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Charles Lloyd, John Handy, Alice Coltrane, Emil Richards, Dallas Smith, Don Pope, Jorge Strunz, Ardeshir Farah, and the Philadelphia String Quartet.

Ustad Aashish Khan has co-led "Shringar" with Andrew McLean, featuring notable New Orleans musicians such as Tim Green and Jason Marsalis.

Aashish Khan was awarded the Fellowship of the Illinois Arts Council, US, in 2002 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 2005.

On 24 May 2007, Ustad Aashish Khan became the first ever Indian classical musician to become a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the UK's highest society in Asian arts and culture.

Aashish Khan was raised as Muslim before later identifying as Hindu in the 2000s.

Aashish Khan claimed that his family were never officially converted into Islam and the surname "Khan" did not necessarily imply he was a Muslim.

Aashish Khan said that his name and his brothers' names were all given by their grandfather, Allauddin.

Aashish Khan final resting place is in the Islamic Garden of Canejo Mountain Cemetery in Camarillo, California.

Aashish Khan died at a hospital in Los Angeles, California, on 14 November 2024, at the age of 84.