Ali Akbar Khan

Biography

Hindustani classical sarod virtuoso of the Maihar gharana, born in Bengal in 1922 and trained by his father Allauddin Khan. Ali Akbar Khan helped introduce Indian classical music to Western audiences from 1955, settled in California, and founded the Ali Akbar College of Music in 1967. He composed ragas and film scores, taught generations of students, received India's Padma Vibhushan in 1989, and remained an active performer until his death in San Anselmo, California, in 2009, leaving one of the deepest recorded legacies in Indian classical music.