Ustad Amjad Ali Khan once said, "There is no essential difference between classical and popular music. Music is music. I want to communicate with the listener who finds Indian classical music remote." His Holiness the Dalai Lama says "When Amjad Ali Khan performs, he carries with him a deep human spirit, a warm feeling and a sense of caring". The famous Songlines World Music Magazine, UK 2003 recognized Amzad Ali as "one of the 20th century`s greatest masters of the Sarod". Ustad Amjad Ali Khan is acknowledged throughout India as one of its foremost classical musicians and the maestro of his chosen instrument, the Sarod.

This maestro was born on 9th October 1945 at Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh in an illustrious Bangash lineage rooted in the Senia Bangash School of music. Father Hafiz Ali Khan, a magnetic presence and a musician to the royal family of Gwalior taught Amjad Ali. Another glorious chapter in the history of Indian classical music was began when at the tender age of six years Amjad Ali Khan gave his first recital of Sarod. The career graph of this musical legend took the speed of light after his debut on its way and the Indian classical music scene was witness to regular and dazzling bursts of Raga supernovas. And thus, the world saw the Sarod being given a new and yet timeless interpretation by Amjad Ali Khan. Khan is one of the few maestros who consider his audience to be the soul of his motivation. Amjad Ali Khan`s wife Subhalakshmi Khan has been a great exponent of the Indian classical dance, Bharatnatyam, which, she sacrificed for her family. His two sons Amman Ali Khan and Ayaan Ali are well known names in the music scene and are the seventh generation of musicians in the family.

His forefathers came from Afghanistan to India`s relaxed music atmosphere and brought the Rabab, is a string instrument which originated in Afghanistan which later developed into Sarod. He is the sixth-generation sarod player in his family and his ancestors have developed and shaped the instrument over several hundred years. Amjad is the youngest son of Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan. The modern sarod has undergone modifications to improve its tonal quality, notably from Ustad Allauddin Khan and his brother Ustad Ayet Ali Khan of the Senia Maihar Gharana.

There are two schools of sarod playing - one in which the strings are stopped by the fingertips and the other in which the strings are stopped by the finger-nails of the left hand (as practised by Amjad Ali Khan). This is what makes the clear ringing sound and is one of the things that makes it so difficult to play. Khan is also noted for producing a wider variety of sounds on the sarod using bends up to 7 notes by sliding across the fingerboard. Khan has also stated that this extended bends is an advantage over fretted string instruments like the sitar.

Amjad Ali Khan has developed compositions based on vocal music, the technical ability to play highly complex phrases (ekhara taans), at times with ascending or descending volume scales on the sarod spanning three octaves with equal emphasis on the composition with his unique style of playing the sarod these are the key innovations in his style.

Amjad Ali Khan uses the traditional sarod but Allauddin Khan`s changes to the tuning and string configurations are not used in it. The only modern trait that he has adopted into his instrument is the round drum of the resonating chamber (the traditional sarod has two jod and chikari strings and 11 tarab strings). His base frequency is also lower than the other schools. His instrument is made by Hemen Sen of Kolkata, who also makes the sarod for other leading maestros such as Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.

Amjad Ali Khan places much emphasis on percussive right-hand plectrum work in his playings, which is the characteristic of the Afghan rabab-based idiom of the early sarod players. His chief innovation are his ekhara taans (complex high speed staccato passages), something which many sarod players find very difficult to do. Paraphrasing his words "I asked my father why the sarod could not keep up with sitar when it came to taans....my father explained that the sarod was a much more difficult instrument to play, not having frets ... it is then I resolved to develop a style where I could match sitar like taans...".

Ustad has achieved immense popularity in India as well as abroad. He has the distinction of being the first north Indian artist to have performed in honor of Thyagaraja at the saint musician`s Thiruvaiyur shrine. He has traveled widely and performed in several international music festivals in Pakistan, China, New Zealand, London, Rome, USA, Moscow, Germany, and Japan etc. He has performed at the WOMAD Festival in Adelaide and New Plymouth, Taranaki in New Zealand, WOMAD Rivermead Festival in UK, Edinburgh Music Festival, World Beat Festival in Brisbane, Summer Arts Festival in Seattle, BBC Proms, International Poets Festival in Rome, Shiraz Festival, UNESCO, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Adelaide Music Festival, 1200 Years celebration of Frankfurt and Schonbrunn in Vienna. A regular performer at the famous halls such as Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Kennedy Center, Santury Hall (First Indian performer), House of Commons, Theater Dela Ville, ESPLANADE in Singapore, Mozart Hall in Frankfurt, Chicago Symphony Center, St. James Palace and the Opera House in Australia, the master has received Hon`ry Citizenship to the States of Texas, Massachusetts, Tennessee and the city of Atlanta.

Over 40 years Amjad Ali Khan had a successful career spanning and continues to be one of the busiest classical musicians in India. He was awarded India`s second highest civilian award, the "Padma Vibhushan" in 2001. And he was awarded the "Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize" in 2004.

On April 8, 2007, he got international recognition too. He was honoured with the Key to the City award by Kathy Taylor Mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma state, for his long-standing contribution to the Indian Classical Music.

Other notable honors conferred to him are given below:

Houston and Nashville has conferred him honorary citizenship in 1997.

Massachusetts has declared April 20 as the `Amjad Ali Khan Day` in 1984.

Tulsa is the third US city to confer honorary citizenship to him.

In 1977, he founded the Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan Memorial Society, which organizes music festivals in different parts of India. He has contributed in propagating and creating music for children. In Gwalior, the family house where Amjad Ali Khan was born has been converted into Sarod Ghar (the `Home of the Sarod`) a teaching center and museum of his family and the sarod, with an impressive collection of instruments including his ancestor`s rababs. The great master remains devoted to Sarod and popularizing his music throughout the world.