Irfan Muhammad Khan

PLAYS

Sarod

---

GHARANA

Shahjahanpur

---

---

---

---

Irfan Muhammad Khan is a sarod player of the Lucknow-Shahjahanpur gharana, with a distinctive style in the instrumentalist mode, the tantra baaj. The gharana's eminent sarod players include Ustad Enayet Khan (1790-1883), Ustad Asadullah Khan Kaukab (1852-1919), Ustad Karamatuilah Khan (1848-1933) and his grandfather, Prof. Sakhawat Hussain Khan (1875-1955) of the Marris College, Lucknow; his predecessor Basat Khan was a direct descendant of Mia Tansen in the male line. He was taught by his father, the sarod player Ustad Umar Khan (1916-1982), and his uncle, the Lucknow sitar player Ustad Ilyas Khan (1924-1989). He plays the alap in the style of the rabab and sur-singar, and his gat-toda draws on old compositions by Rahim Sen (18th century) and the 19th-century Basat Khan, Pyar Khan, Jaffar Khan and Haider Khan. He holds a Sangeet Visharad and a Sangeet Praveen, topping the latter at the Prayag Sangit Samiti, Allahabad, with a gold medal, and a B.A. in History from Kanpur University. Awarded the title "Sur-Mani" by the Sur Singar Samsad of Bombay, he has performed in India, Germany, Italy, the USA and neighbouring countries, including the Festival of Sarod of the Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan Memorial Society, Delhi, in 1988. On deputation from the ICCR and the Ministry of External Affairs to Kabul, he taught sarod and sitar there for three years, and was professor of sarod and sitar at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (2010-2013). In 2015 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Dakshin Kolkata Nritya O Sanskriti Parisad.