Aashish Khan - Music and Accomplishments

Music and Accomplishments

Aashish Khan grew up in Maihar and Calcutta performing Indian classical music among distinguished circles of connoisseurs. He 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. Since then he has performed at major venues of classical music and world music both in the Indian subcontinent and abroad.

Besides his virtuosity as a traditional sarode Ustad Aashish Khan is also one of the pioneers in the establishment of world music genre, as founder of the Indo-American musical group "Shanti" with tabla player Ustad Zakir Hussain in 1969, and later, fusion group, "The Third Eye". In "Shanti", Aashish Khan is featured playing the acoustic sarode sometimes through a fender guitar amplifier with vibrato effect.

Under Pandit Ravi Shankar, he has worked as a background artist on musical products for both film and stage, including Oscar Winner Satyajit Ray's Apur Sansar, Parash Pathar, Jalsha Ghar, and Sir Richard Attenborough’s film Gandhi. He has also worked as a background artist 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 (he received Best Film Score Award for Jotugriha) and Aadmi Aurat.

During 1989-1990, Aashish Khan served as the Composer and Conductor for the National Orchestra of All India Radio, New Delhi, India, succeeding musical stalwarts like sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar, and flautist Pandit Pannalal Ghosh.