Charles Amirkhanian Collection ➔ Speaking of Music: Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, 1 of 2

Digital Audio

Event Type

Interview and Music

Origin

C Amirkhanian

Identifier

SOM.1992.05.19.A

Program Series

Speaking of Music

Program Length

149 min

Part

1 of 2

Dates

| broadcast
| 1992-05-19 | created

Description

Recorded on May 19, 1992, as part of the San Francisco Exploratorium’s Speaking of Music series, Charles Amirkhanian interviews the famous classical Indian musician, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Born to a family of musicians in Bangladesh in 1922, Khan began performing when he was three years old, and by his twenties he had become the court musician to the Maharaja of Jodhpur, in Rajasthan, India. In 1956 he formed the Ali Akbar College of Music in Calcutta (Kolkata), India. In 1967, recognizing the expanding interest in Indian music in the West he opened up a branch of his College in Northern California. Topics covered in this interview include the various instruments of classical Indian music, the sarod, tabla, and tambura, as well as the typical forms such as the Raga. The last hour of the program is devoted to a live concert of classical Indian music.

Genres

World music

Musical Selections

[an evening raga] -- [unidentified raga] -- Anticipation / Ustad Ali Akbar Khan

Performers

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, sarod
Swapan Chaudhuri, tabla
James Pomerantz, tambura
Allyn Miner, tambura

Subjects

World music
Music -- India
Sarod, tabla, and tambura music
Ragas

Acknowledgment

Funding for the preservation of this program made possible through a grant by Save America’s Treasures, a program of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Related place

San Francisco (Calif.) (was recorded at)

Related Entities

Amirkhanian, Charles
Khan, Ali Akbar, 1922-
Chaudhuri, Swapan
Pomerantz, James
Miner, Allyn