The Ali Khan
family represents a 500 year lineage of musicians of the Shamcharasi
Gharana, descendants of two famed court musicians to the artistically-devoted
Akbar the Great: Chand Khan and Suraj Khan. Chand Khan used to
sing morning ragas to this most famous Indian ruler of the Moghul
Age of the India empire. Now Salamat a legendary vocalist throughout
the Indian subcontinent, is joined by his two sons for these ragas
of blessings, invocations, romantic and sad moods. Michos plays
guitars, synthesizers, percussion and samples, with additional
Santur, violin, piano, wind chimes, harmonium, and even Stephen
Kent on didgeridoo and Alan Kushan on Santur.
Ustad Salamat
Ali Khan (Born in 1934 in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab),
father of an entire family of vocalist-musicians, performed (at
the age of nine), with his brother Nazakat Ali Khan, as the famed
Ali Brothers. They were internationally renowned as superstars
in the 60's and 70's for their immense talent and artistry in
the classical form. Now the next generation is becoming increasingly
recognized for their great talents. The children are Sharafat
Ali Khan, Shafqat Ali Khan, Sukhawat Ali Khan and Riffat Salamat.
Shafqat Ali
Khan (Born June 17, 1972 Lahore Pakistan) belongs to the Sham
Churasi school from East Punjab. This school of music has a long
tradition that dates to the Mughul times of Emperor Akbar. This
school was established by the two brothers Chand Khan and Suraj
Khan. His uncle Ustad Nazakat Ali Khan and father Ustad Salamat
Ali Khan, the internationally acclaimed classical singers, from
the 10th generation of the Sham Churasi school.
Shafqat began
performing at the age of seven. His first performance was at the
Lahore Music Festival in 1979. Shafqat has performed throughout
Europe with several important concerts in France, the United Kingdom,
Italy, Germany, Holland, Spain, and Switzerland Geneva Festival.
He is a well established performer throughout India, Pakistan,
and Bangla Desh. He has performed as well throughout Canada and
the United States with some key performances at the Smithsonian
Institute in the 1988 and 1996, and for the World Music Institute
at the New York's Metropolitan Museum in 1988 and Merkin Concert
Hall in 1991.
Shafqat in
the recipient of a number of awards, in 1986 in Lahore he received
the Amir Khusro Award as the best young classical singer. In 1987,
he received the Gold Medal from Faislabad University, Pakistan.
In 1995 he received the Ghanda Award from New Deli University.
He has appeared on recordings from Nimbus(UK), EMI(India), HMV(UK),
WaterLily Acoustics(USA), Westron(India), MegaSound(India), Keytune
Productiona(Holland), Plus Music(India) (forthcoming), and Folk
Heritage(Pakistan).
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