NEW DELHI: World-renowned Indian classical sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan has been selected to be the first Artist in Residence at the newly formed School of Global and International Studies at the University of Indiana Bloomington.
Khan was to visit the campus 23 to 27 September as a guest of the Madhusudan and Kiran C. Dhar India Studies Program, according to information on the university website.
During his residency, Khan will teach a one-credit-hour course on Indian classical music and culture at the Dhar India Studies Program. The class will run through 25 September concluding with a public demonstration. According to the release, Khan’s course will be very interactive. Students will be taught to understand the concepts of Indian classical music, covering topics such as forms of raga, or melodic modes, and taal, or rhythmic patterns.
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According to the release, Khan said he looks forward to his time spent in Bloomington and working with IU students. “Through my residency at Indiana University, I would like to reach out to students with experience playing a musical instrument, including voice, from any musical tradition,” Khan said in the press release. “No previous experience with Indian music is necessary. There is room for music beyond technical brilliance and firework mastery.”
Michael S. Dodson, Director of the Dhar India Studies Program, said in the press release that he was thrilled to have Khan come to IU and work with students. “He comes from a long lineage of hereditary musicians,” Dodson said.
“He will demonstrate the way in which the elements of Indian classical music are transferred through the generations and how composition works in a traditional music form.”
Khan has performed on the sarod since he was six, having been taught by his father, the sixth generation in the Bangash lineage. He has performed at major music festivals worldwide, including the WOMAD festivals, the Edinburgh Music Festival, the World Beat Festival, the Summer Arts Festival in Seattle, BBC Proms, the Shiraz Festival and the Hong Kong Arts Festival. He frequently performs at Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, Kennedy Center, Santury Hall, Chicago Symphony Center and the Opera House in Australia. Khan is also scheduled to perform with his sons Ayaan Ali Khan and Amaan Ali Khan at the Lotus World Music and Arts Festival in Bloomington, Sept. 28.
In addition to his visit to IU and hisperformance at Lotus, Khan and his sons are performing concerts at the United Nations, the San Francisco Jazz Festival, the Berklee Performance Center in Boston and the Chicago World Music Festival during their current visit to the United States. While Khan has remained focused on Indian classical music, he also has experimented with modifications to his instrument throughout his career.
His musical collaborations have included works composed for the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as duets with guitarists Charlie Byrd, Alvaro Pierri and Barry Mason and violinist Igor Frolov.
In 2010, he released with his sons the album “Sarod Symphony,” which was a presentation of some of his compositions within a symphony.
His concerto for Sarod and orchestra, “Samaagam,” resulted from collaboration with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and was released worldwide the following year. In 2011, the Grammy-nominated artist released a collection of Indian classical ragas and collaborated with Carrie Newcomer on her album, “Everything Is Everywhere,” with his sons.
Khan recently was honored with the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavna Award, which is given by the Indian government to those who make outstanding contributions toward promotion of communal harmony, national integration and peace. He also has received the UNESCO Gandhi Medal, Padma Vibhushan, UNICEF’s National Ambassadorship, and the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum.
