Ustad Rashid Khan

Ustad Rashid Khan is an Indian classical musician in the Hindustani music tradition. He belongs to the Rampur Sahaswan gharana, and is the great grandson of gharana founder Inayat Hussain Khan. He was born in Badayun, UP India, on July 1, 1966. He was awarded the Padma Shri, as well as the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2006. He received his initial training from his maternal granduncle, Ustad Nissar Hussain Khan (1909-1993). He is also the nephew of Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan. He is married to Joyeeta Bose, from the family of Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose. As the Rashid zodiac sign is cancer, his compatible Horoscope Matching would be Taurus, Virgo, Scorpio, and Pisces. The Kundli Milan of Rashid depicts that, his romance and love life perfectly reflects who you are, particularly because you are so capable of nurturing others.

Rashid Khan gave his first concert at age eleven, and the following year, 1978, he performed at an ITC concert in Delhi. In April 1980, when Nissar Hussain Khan moved to the ITC Sangeet Research Academy (SRA), Calcutta, Rashid Khan also joined the academy at the age of 14. By 1994, he was acknowledged as a musician at the academy. The Rampur-Sahaswan gayaki is closely related to the Gwalior Gharana, which features a medium-slow tempos, a full-throated voice and intricate rhythmic play. Rashid Khan includes the slow elaboration in his vilambit khayals in the manner of his maternal grand-uncle and also developed exceptional expertise in the use of sargams and sargam taankari. He is also a master of the Tarana like his guru but sings them in his own manner, preferring the khayal style rather than the instrumental stroke-based style for which Nissar Hussain was famous. There is no imitation of instrumental tone. His mastery of all aspects tonal variations, dynamics and timbre adjustment leave very little to be desired in the realm of voice culture.

His renderings stand out for the emotional overtones in his melodic elaboration. He says: "The emotional content may be in the alaap, sometimes while singing the bandish, or while giving expression to the meaning of the lyrics." This brings a touch of modernity to his style, as compared to the older maestros, who placed greater emphasis on impressive technique and skillful execution of difficult passages. Rashid Khan has also experimented with fusing pure Hindustani music with lighter musical genres, e.g. in the Sufi fusion recording Naina Piya Se (songs of Amir Khusro), or in experimental concerts with western instrumentalist Louis Banks. He also performs jugalbandis, along with sitarist Shahid Parvez and others. Karthik Raja celebrated his birthday on 29th june.