Imrat Khan

Indian Sitar and Surbahar Maestro

Virtuoso sitar and surbahar player. Born 17 November 1935 - died 22 November 2018. Younger brother of sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan and father of Irshad Khan, Nishat Khan, Shafaatullah Khan and Wajahat Khan. Great exponent of his family style, known as the Imdad Khani gharana (school), or Etawah Gharana, after a village outside Agra where Imdad Khan lived. Imrat Khan was born in Calcutta into a family of musicians tracing its pedigree back for several generations, to the court musicians of the Mughal rulers. His father was Enayat Khan (1895–1938), recognised as a leading sitar and surbahar player of his time, as had been his grandfather, Imdad Khan (1848–1920), before him. His great-grandfather, Ustad Sahebdad Khan, is generally attributed to be the developer of the surbahar, sometimes referred to as the bass sitar, although recent research shows that Lucknow-based sitarist Ustad Ghulam Mohammed may have been the inventor.