Ustad Alam Khan

Alam Khan is the son of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and, by his own account and that of the Ali Akbar College of Music, khalifa of the Seni Maihar gharana. He began training at the age of seven under his father, in the guru-shishya manner, and continued with him until Ali Akbar Khan's death in 2009.

He accompanied his father on international stages between 1996 and 2006, playing at the Royal Jodhpur Palace, the Dover Lane Music Conference in Calcutta and the Lincoln Center Jazz Festival in New York among others. His solo career began in 1998. He has performed with tabla players including Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, Ustad Zakir Hussain and Pandit Anindo Chatterjee.

Outside the classical concert hall he has recorded and performed with the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Vijay Iyer, Blake Mills, Anoushka Shankar, Karsh Kale and the San Francisco Symphony, among others. He is a founding member of the group Grand Tapestry and the principal composer of The Resonance Between. He has twice been nominated for a Grammy Award.

He served as his father's assistant in his final years, helping with teaching at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California. After 2009 he became head of Indian classical instrumental studies there, the post the college lists as Director of Instrumental Music.

He plays the sarod of the Seni Maihar school as it was taught to him directly by Ali Akbar Khan, and performs the ragas associated with that lineage, including his father's composition Chandranandan.