Ustad Rashid Khan of  Rampur-Sahaswan Gharana will be presenting a Hindustani Music Vocal Concert at 7PM(IST), 25 August, 2010 as a part of the cultural events organized for ICM2010.

More about Ustad Rashid Khan

Ustad Rashid Khan …

“ ….. an assurance for the future

Ustad Rashid Khan

of Indian vocal music’’

“Today’s greatest………”, was how The Economic Times has eulogised Rashid. The Statesman has described him as”……….immensely gifted……affects first-time listeners with a jolt” after the magic of his voice began taking audiences by storm wherever he sang.

It indeed is…… with Ustad Rashid Khan, the young maestro, one of the leading torch-bearers.

The great-grandson of the Founder of Rampur-Sahaswan gharana, Ustad Enayat Hussain Khan Saheb, the 1966 born Rashid showed little or no interest in music initially. His tutelage under his illustrious granduncle and guru, the late Padambhushan Ustad Nisar Hussain Khan, changed the course of his life and made him what he is today. It was Ustad Nisar Hussain Khan who discovered the latent potential of his grandson and nurtured it by training him in the traditional one-to-one manner – first at his own residence at Budaon and subsequently at The Sangeet Research Academy.

Ustad Nisar Hussain Khan was a strict disciplinarian and the long and arduous training under his guru made Rashid Khan a perfect exponent of the Rampur-Sahawan gharana, which owes its allegiance to the Senia traditions and has a great lineage of classical vocalists like the great Ustads Wazir Khan, Enayat Hussain Khan, Bahadur Hussain Khan, Fida Hussain Khan, Mustaq Hussain Khan and Nisar Hussain Khan. Rashid gave his first performance at the age of eleven, in 1977, and, in the very next year performed at the ITC Sangeet Sammelan at New Delhi. He has not looked back since.

Rashid’s growing popularity has since then been reflected in his increasing participation in all well-known music conferences in India and extensive tours the world over. He has been felicitated with the ” RASHTRIYA KUMAR GANDHARVA AWARD” by the Government of Madhyapradesh ; on the 29th of October 2002 in a glittering ceremony at Bhopal. He has also been awarded the PADMASHREE by the President of India on the 19th of March, 2006. He has also been awarded THE SAGEET NATAK ACADEMY AWARD on the 28th of December, 2006.

Ustad Rashid Khan is extremely adept in producing all techniques and characteristic features of the Rampur Sahaswan style. He has developed exceptional expertise in the slow elaboration of vilambit khayals and the use of sargams and sargam taankari. His taankari is as powerful and varigeated as any of his predecessors. The brilliant Enayat Hussain drut and medium pace khayals ring as true in his voice as they have done down the ages.

He is also a master of the tarana like his guru but sings them in his own manner. His mastery of all aspects of tonal variations, dynamics and timbre adjustment leave very little to be desired in the realm of voice culture. His vocal prowess is in the best tradition of the Rampur Sahaswan gharana.

Above all, Rashid has, in abundant measure, that rare quality called Taasir — the indescribable ability to create a genuine impact on listeners. This ability has endeared Rashid to connoisseurs and laymen alike, and made him a great favourite of Indian Classical Music lovers.

For all the heady success Rashid has achieved, he wears his fame lightly, remaining withdrawn and publicity-shy. An embodiment of humility, Rashid Khan believes that he is very much in the process of learning, and still has a long way to go….