Khan set to perform at LSSU

NEWS RELEASE

LAKE SUPERIOR STATE UNIVERSITY

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SAULT STE. MARIE, MI - Ustad Shafaat Khan, a world-renowned classical Indian musician who has been performing since he was a child, will be featured at Lake Superior State University’s Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 9. 

Tickets, available online at lssu.edu/artscenter or at the door, are $18 for adults, $15 for seniors and $5 for students.

Khan first performed at the age of 11 in the King’s Lynn Festival opened by the Queen Mother.

Since then, he has performed worldwide at many prestigious concert halls, music festivals, and at universities in India, Pakistan, Japan, Russia, China, Malaysia, UK, Germany, France, Italy and nearly every major city in the United States. 

He has shared a television performance with Ray Charles in Germany and recently performed alongside Stevie Wonder at the Bonaroo Festival -- one of the largest music festivals in the U.S.

Through his music, he has helped raise money for various charitable purposes including concerts for world peace, flood victims, disabled children, battered women, and tsunami victims, among other causes serving those who are in need. 

Khan distinguished himself by being the first known artist to attain simultaneous excellence in performing the sitar, surbahar and tabla.

He has released three historic CDs produced by Dr. Deepak Chopra, in which he performed on the sitar and surbahar, and accompanied himself on the tabla, a first in Indian classical music.

He performed his own composition, River of Strings at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia with a symphony orchestra.

Khan’s musical heritage can be traced back to the 16th century to the court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar.

He is the son of the legendary sitar and surbahar maestro Ustad Imrat Khan and nephew of Ustad Vilayat Khan.

In tabla, he is the foremost disciple of the widely respected Ustad Ibrahim Khan.

Following his family tradition, Khan has initiated his four sons into the art of Indian classical music.

Besides teaching them all both the sitar and the surbahar, he has tailored their training according to their personal talents, so that each one has concentrated on mastering a different instrument.

All four are now individually established on the international circuit.

They represent the eighth generation of a unique dynasty of master musicians.

The sitar (meaning three strings) is an acoustic instrument used widely in Hindustani and Indian classical music.

It gained more Western followers in the 1960s when the Beatles featured it in several compositions.

The surbahar is the bass equivalent, sometimes known as the bass sitar.

The tabla is a percussion instrument similar to bongos, but is played through a much more intricate process.

Khan plays all of these instruments like no one else and has received rave reviews around the world.

For more information about Khan’s performance, visit lssu.edu/artscenter, or get tickets by calling 906-635-2601.

For more information about the musician, visit musicalbeats.net.

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