Shujaat Khan
sitar

Shujaat Husain Khan is perhaps the greatest North Indian classical musician of his generation. He belongs to the Imdad Khan gharana (tradition) of the sitar (lute) and is the seventh in the unbroken line from his family that has produced many musical masters. His style known as the gayaki ang, is imitative of the subtleties of the human voice.

Shujaat Husain Khan is the son and disciple of master sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan. His musical pedigree continues back through his grandfather, Ustad Inayat Khan; his great-grandfather, Ustad Imdad Khan; and his great-great-grandfather, Ustad Sahebdad Khan - all leading artist of their generation.

At the age of three Shujaat began practicing on a specially made small sitar, and by the time he was six, the child prodigy started giving public performances. Since then he has performed at all the prestigious music festivals in India and has traveled around the world performing in Asia, Africa, North America and Europe. Shujaat Husain Khan has developed his own unique style of playing Indian classical music. His approach to rhythm is largely intuitive, fresh and spontaneous, always astonishing his audiences. He is also known for his exceptional voice, which he uses for singing folk songs and poetry.

On the occasion of India's 50th anniversary of independence, a music festival was held in the United States. In this Shujaat Husain Khan was a featured artist and among other locations performed at the Carnegie Hall in New York, Paramount Theater in Seattle, and Meyers Symphony Theater in Dallas. In continuance of this commemoration, the United Nations bestowed upon him a special honor, choosing him as the sole artist to represent India with a performance at the prestigious Assembly Hall in Geneva.

His memorable appearances include performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Royce Hall in Los Angeles and Congress Hall in Berlin. In the summer of 1999, he was the featured soloist with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. His collaboration with different genres of music has been a very strong point as is evidenced by the enormously successful Indo-Persian venture, the Ghazal Ensemble. Their album, Rain, was nominated for a Grammy award in 2004.In January 2000, the Boston Herald listed Shujaat Husain Khan, along with luminaries like Seiji Ozawa and Luciano Pavarotti among the top 25 upcoming cultural events for the year.

He has been invited as visiting faculty at the Dartington School of Music in England, the University of Washington in Seattle, and the University of California at Los Angeles.

He has over 50 musical releases on a variety of international labels; and also a very commercially successful video called KHANDAN. Additionally, he has been honored with numerous awards by many different Indian and international organizations.

Listen to a radio interview with Shujaat Khan on KCRW (Los Angeles) Cafe L.A. with Tom Schnabel

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