Ustad Irfan Muhammad Khan: Doyen of Sarod

A rare opportunity to encounter the virtuosity of a hereditary master of sarod, accompanied by one of the UK’s finest tabla players, in the intimate setting of one of the oldest cinemas in the world.

There is no other sarod player today who sounds like Ustad Irfan Muhammad Khan. He is the eighth generation and leading contemporary representative of an incredibly influential lineage of Hindustani music instrumentalists, known as the Lucknow-Shahjahanpur Gharana.

His ancestors lay claim to the invention of the sarod and the first ever sarod performance in the UK, to Queen Victoria. Following in their footsteps, Irfan Muhammad Khan has continued to cultivate a vast repertoire of unique compositions and a profound approach to the presentation of ragas — the melodic foundations of all South Asian Classical music.

In recent years, Irfan Muhammad Khan has welcomed a handful of musicians from around the world to study his repertoire in depth, keeping the musical knowledge of the Gharana alive beyond traditional family structures. Bristol and North Somerset resident, Dr Pete Yelding is one of these musicians, who will be presenting the opening half of this special Bristol Baithaks concert on sitar.

Both Ustad Irfan Muhammad Khan and Dr Pete Yelding will be accompanied by the highly acclaimed tabla player, Ustad Shahbaz Hussain.

Bristol Baithaks is a new series of grassroots South Asian Classical music concerts taking place in the South West of England. A baithak (‘bair-tak’) is an informal and intimate concert in which raga-based music is presented.

A raga is a melodic world, with a particular expressive mood or atmosphere and an association with a specific time of day or season. With concerts taking place in different venues around the region, at different times of day, Bristol Baithaks audiences will be given the opportunity to experience the melodic and atmospheric qualities of different ragas up close and on their doorstep.