Asad Ali Khan was an Indian musician who played the plucked string instrumentrudra veena. Khan performed in the style dhrupad and was described as the best living rudra veena player in India by The Hindu. He was awarded the Indian civilian honor Padma Bhushan in 2008.
Life and career
Khan was born 1937 in Alwar in the seventh generation of rudra veena players in his family. His ancestors were royal musicians in the courts of Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, and Jaipur, Rajasthan in the 18th century. His great-grandfather Rajab Ali Khan was head of the court musicians in Jaipur and owned a village land holding. His grandfather Musharraf Khan was court musician in Alwar, and performed in London in 1886. Khan's father Sadiq Ali Khan worked as a musician for the Alwar court and for the Nawab of Rampur for 35 years. Khan grew up in a musical surrounding and was taught the Beenkar gharana of Jaipur and vocals for fifteen years. Khan was one of a few active musicians who played the rudra veena and the last surviving master of one of the four schools of dhrupad, the Khandar school. He performed in many countries, including Australia, the United States, Afghanistan, and Italy and several other European countries, and conducted music courses in the United States. Khan worked at All India Radio, taught the sitar in the Faculty of Music and Fine Arts at the University of Delhi for 17 years, and continued to train students privately after his retirement. Students of Khan who perform include his son Zaki Haidar, Carsten Wicke, Bikramjeet Das of Kolkata, and the vocalist, Madhumita Ray. Khan criticized the lack of willingness among Indians to study the rudra veena and has more foreign than Indian students. He was involved in preserving the playing of the instrument, which he believed to be created by the deity Shiva, and performed for SPIC MACAY, promoting Indian classical music to young Indians. Khan was a Shi'a Muslim. Khan received several national awards, including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1977 and the civilian honor Padma Bhushan in 2008, which was awarded by Indian PresidentPratibha Patil. He was described as the best living rudra veena player in India by The Hindu and lived in Delhi.
