USTAD KADAR KHAN

Ustad (literally “master”) Kadar Khan was born in Rajasthan, India into a family of professional musicians. His ancestors, for generations, served as royal court musicians for the rulers of India. Kadar Khan began his musical training at age seven under the strict tutelage of his father and guru, Ustad Reheman Khan. It was Ustad Reheman Khan who passed on to Kadar Khan the four traditional styles of tabla playing: the Delhi, Ajarada, Lucknow, and Farukhabad gharanas, or “schools”.

Artists Bio

PANDIT MANI PRASAD

Ustad Pandit Mani Prasad is a leading vocal exponent of Hindustani classical music, and is widely recognized as a pre-eminent representative of the Kirana gharana.

Panditji was raised in an atmosphere of Hindustani classical music and started his Sangeet Sadhana (devotion to music) in early childhood, receiving training from his father Pandit Sukhdev Prasad, and his grandfather Pandit Shakti Lal, both of whom were noted for their musical purity. He was later guided by his uncles Pandit Shankar Lal, and Pandit Gopal Prasad. more...

Artists Bio

BINA KALAVANT

Bina Kalavant, a sitarist and staff member at the Kalavant Center for Music and Dance, began her music and dance studies at age four at the Shreyes Foundation, a progressive, experimental school in Ahmedabad, India. She is trained in the Manpuri and Kathak dance traditions, and later extensively studied sitar under such distinguished teachers as Ustad Ghulam Rasool Khan, and Shri Sukhrajsinh Jhala. From 1982 to 1990, she served as a director for the Naad Niket Musical Academy in Ahmedabad where she also taught sitar and music theory.

Bina has given professional performances and assisted in lecture/demonstrations for the American Museum of Natural History, Columbia University, Manhattan School of Music, City Lore of New York, New Jersey State University, William Patterson University of New Jersey, University of Connecticut at Hartford and the Cooper Union Adult Education series. She also conducted Indian music ensemble classes at New York University for post-graduate ethnomusicology students. She has also given performances at The Town Hall, Symphony Space, and Lincoln Center Out of Doors, and has given many short recitals at various institutions, such as Third Street Music School, Yale Center for British Art, Downtown Music at Grace and Jamaica Arts Center.

Besides being a mother, Bina manages a busy schedule regularly conducting sitar workshops and giving sitar instruction on an individual basis. She has successfully nurtured many of her students into becoming accomplished performers of Indian classical music.

AYUB KHAN

Ayub Khan was born into a family of hereditary musicians who have carried with them a rich knowledge of traditional tabla repertoire. He was trained under his father Ustad Reheman Khan, the tabla maestro. During his training with his father, Ayub Khan received the knowledge of the four main tabla gharanas, namely Delhi, Ajarada, Farukhabad, and Lucknow, that he works to preserve today. Ustad Reheman Khan received the knowledge of these gharanas from his gurus, namely his father Chowdury Ajmeri Khan, a disciple of Ustad Nunhei Khan of the Delhi gharana, Ustad Masit Khan of the Farukhabad gharana, Ustad Azim Khan, father of the great Ustad Nizamuddin Khan, and the legendary Khalifa Ghulam Hussain Khan, master of the two Purab styles of tabla, Farukhabad and Lucknow, and representative of the repertoire of Ustad Munir Khan. It is the tabla repertoire of these great Ustads, including Ustad Jamal Khan (Hyderabad Sindh, Pakistan), Ustad Reheman Khan's elder brother, that Ayub Khan possesses and preserves.

Since his first tour of the US in 1997, he has performed at many prestigious venues, including: The Lincoln Center, the American Museum of Natural History, Hunter College, and New York University.. Presently he is associated with Naad-Niket, Center for Propagation of Indian Music, in India. He is here in the US performing with Raj Arts Management, and closely affilliated with the Kalavant Center for Music and Dance.

JAVED KHAN

Javed Khan is a sitarist and both a staff member of Naad Niket Musical Academy in Ahmedabad, India, and Kalavant Center for Music and Dance in New York. He has been playing sitar for 10 years, and received his training from Shri Sukhrajsinh Jhala.

Born into a family of distinguished musicians, whose ancestors were renowned master musicians for the princely courts of Northern India, Javed Khan is now carrying on this family tradition of music. His grandfather, Ustad Raheman Khan, a master of tabla drumming, made great musical innovations to an already rich tradition of music, and not only established himself as the foremost tabla player in the state of Gujarat, India, but is renowned throughout India. With such musical greatness in his family, Javed Khan naturally gravitated to pursuing music as his profession.

During his present visit to the US he gave his debut performance at Symphony Space in New York. He has also performed for the Manhattan School of Music, Yale University, and New Jersey State University.