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Ustad Aashish Khan Debsharma (born 1939) is an Indian musician, best known for his virtuosity on the sarod.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Music and Accomplishments 3 Collaborations 4 Teaching 5 Conversion 6 References 7 External links

Aashish Khan is the son of noted sarod player Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. He was initiated into North Indian classical music at the age of five by his grandfather, Ustad Allauddin Khan, also a sarod player and the founder of the Senia Maihar School of Music, exponent of the “Senia Beenkar” and “Senia Rababiya” Gharana..^[1] His talim (training) continued under the guidance of his father Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and his aunt, Smt. Annapurna Devi, presently the leading exponents of the “Senia Gharana”, in the Beenkar and Rababiya anga of the Druvapada style.

Aashish gave his first 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.^[1]

Besides his virtuosity as a traditional sarod maestro, Aashish is also a pioneer in the establishment of world music genre^{[citation needed]}, as founder of the Indo-American musical group "Shanti" with distinguished tabla player Ustad Zakir Hussain in 1969 and 1970 and later, fusion group, “The Third Eye”; and composed a Sarod Concerto in "raga" form. Aashish Khan is also one of India's most adventurous experimenters. In Shanti, which preceded John McLaughlin's Shakti, featured Khan playing the acoustic sarode sometimes through a Fender guitar amplifier with vibrato effect.

With Pandit Ravi Shankar, he has worked on many musical products for both film and stage, including Oscar Winner Satyajit Ray's Apur Sansar, Parash Pathar and Sir Richard Attenborough’s film Gandhi. He has also worked 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 and Aadmi Aurat.^[1]

In 1989, Khan was appointed to the prestigious post of the Composer and Conductor for the National Orchestra of All India Radio, New Delhi, India, succeeding Pandit Ravi Shankar. However due to personality clashes Khan was dismissed within a year.

Aashish has collaborated with such diverse western musicians as John Barham, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Charles Lloyd, John Handy, Alice Coltrane, Emil Richards, Dallas Smith, Don Pope, Jorge Strunz, Ardeshir Farah, and the Philadelphia String Quartet. Aashish Khan is currently co-leading Shringar with Andrew McLean and other notable New Orleans musicians such as Tim Green and Jason Marsalis. Shringar is the first foray of any classical Indian musician into the music culture of New Orleans, widely considered the Mecca of Jazz. His recordings include Wonderwall Music, Young Master of the Sarod, California Concert, Sarod and Piano Jugalbandi, Shanti, Live at the Royal Festival Hall London, Homage, Inner Voyage, Monsoon Ragas, The Sound of Mughal Court, and the latest, Jugalbandi Sarod & Sarangi Duet, with Ustad Sultan Khan.^[1][2]

Aashish Khan is a musical guru (teacher), currently on the faculty at the California Institute of the Arts, Valenci, CA and formerly on the faculties of the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California, and the University of Washington, Seattle. While pursuing a busy career as a concert artist and composer, he teaches students throughout the US, Canada, Europe, and Africa, as well as India. Satyam Vasant Rai and Aniruddha Vasant Rai (sons of the late Pt. Vasant Rai) are students of Aashish Khan.^[3]

In September 2006, Khan announced his conversion to Hinduism which sparked a controversy in the family. His rationale was that his family really never converted to Islam. This has sparked an angry reaction from his father Ali Akbar Khan and other Muslims claiming that Aashish is "hurting the past generation of our family".^[4]

• Biography at Sony Music India
• [1] at Simlahouse
• Photos of Khan at Buckingham Music