Ustad Nishat Khan

Nishat Khan was born on 25 October 1960 in the Park Circus area of Kolkata, on a road named after his grandfather Enayat Khan. He is the son of the sitar and surbahar player Ustad Imrat Khan, who was also his guru, and the nephew of Ustad Vilayat Khan, whose concerts and post-concert analysis he describes as a form of training in itself.

He began the sitar at three and gave his first concert at seven in Kolkata; he was thirteen when he first played on All India Radio. His first international appearance came in 1977 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, performing with his father.

Alongside classical touring he has worked with John McLaughlin — first in a duet in Italy in 1986 — and with Philip Glass, Paco Peña, Evelyn Glennie and Django Bates. His sitar concerto "Gate of the Moon" was premiered with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the Proms in 2013.

Khan's classical playing belongs to the gayaki ang associated with his family: the sitar is made to follow the phrasing of a singer, with long meend and shaped ornament before the rhythmic sections. He is also known for speed and clarity in fast passages. In his collaborative work the same technique is applied to written and improvised material from outside Hindustani music, which he keeps separate from his raga recitals.