Imran Khan

About Imran Khan

Imran is an accomplished practitioner of Hindustani classical music, specializing in both the sarod as well as the rabab. Based in Delhi, he represents the 8^th generation of one of the foremost musical families of India. Hailing from the renowned Lucknow Senia gharana of sarod playing, Imran started playing sarod and rabab at the age of nine, receiving his initial training from his uncle, the Late Ustad Mukhtar Ahmed, and his father, Padma Shri awardee Ustad Gulfam Ahmed, and gave his first public performance at the age of 14.

He excels in gat-toda patterns, a speciality of the Lucknow-Senia gharana, associated with highly stylized use of rhythmic patterns, especially in the faster passages.

Imran has continued the work of his father in promoting the afghani rabab in India and is one of very few musicians in the world who can boast of equal mastery over the sarod as well as the rabab. A versatile and innovative musician, his repertoire extends from Hindustani classical music to more popular genres such as folk music, sufi music, ghazals and film music.

Imran has performed at some of the leading Indian classical and sufi music festivals, including the Harballabh Sangeet Sammelan, the Qutub Festival, the Tansen Sangeet Samaroh, the Saptak Annual Festival of Music, the Taj Mahotsav and the Jahan-E-Khusrau. He has also performed internationally in South Africa, Iran and Afghanistan.