His Own Unique Style

Shujaat Khan is perhaps the greatest North Indian classical musician of his generation. He belongs to the Imdad Khan gharana (tradition) of the sitar (lute) and is the seventh in the unbroken line from his family that has produced many musical masters. His style known as the gayaki ang, is imitative of the subleties of the human voice.

At the age of three Shujaat began practicing on a specially made small sitar, and by the time he was six, the child prodigy started giving public performances. Since then he has performed at all the prestigious music festivals in India and has travelled around the world performing in Asia, Africa, North America and Europe.

Shujaat Husain Khan has developed his own unique style of playing Indian classical music. His approach to rythm is largely intuitive, fresh and spontaneous, always astonishing his audiences. He is also known for his exceptional voice, which he uses for singing folk songs and poetry.

On the ocassion of India's 50th anniversary of independence, a music festival was held in the United States. He was the feature artist and among other locations performed at the Carneige Hall in New York, Paramount Theater in Seattle, and Meyers Symphon Theater in Dallas.

In continuance of this commemoration, the United Nations bestowed upon him a special honour, choosing him as the sole artist to represent India with a performance at the prestigious Assembly Hall in Geneva. His memorable appearances include performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Royce Hall in Los Angeles and Congress Hall in Berlin. In the summer of 1999, he was the featured soloist with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. His collaboration with different genres of music has been a very strong point as is evidenced by the enormously successful Indo-Persian venture, the Ghazal Ensemble. Their album Rain, was nominated for a Grammy award in 2004.

In January 2000, the Boston Herald listed Shujaat Khan, along with luminaries like Seiji Ozawa and Luciano Pavarotti among the top 25 upcoming cultural events for the year. He has been invited as visiting faculty at the Dartington School of Music in England, the University of Washington in Seattle, and the University of California at Los Angeles. He has over 50 musical releases on a varity of international labels; and also a very commercially successful video called KHANDAN. Additionally, he has been honoured with numerous awards by many different Indian and international organizations.