Irfan Muhammad Khan is the presiding chief of the Lucknow-Shahjahanpur Gharana, a lineage of sarod and sitar players traceable to the nineteenth-century royal court of Lucknow. Irfan Muhammad Khan learned sarod and sitar from his father Umar Khan, and from his uncle Ilyas Khan. From 1984 to 1988, and again from 2010 to 2013, Irfan Muhammad Khan lived in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he trained students at the Afghan National Institute of Music with which he remains associated as an Emeritus Professor. He has also performed and taught in the U.S., the U.K., Italy, Germany, and Japan. He lives and teaches in Calcutta, his home since early childhood. He is fluent in many languages and has collected all the material concerning his ancestors that forms the base of this archive. He has taught an immense number of students most notably: Eshan Irfan (sitar, Afghansitan), Arnab Chakrabarty (sarod, Canada) Max Katz (sitar, USA), Markus Schlaffke (rubab, Germany), Pete Yelding (sitar, UK), Partha Sarathi (sarod, India), Adrian McNeil (sarod, Australia), Satyaki Dutta (sarod, USA), Jonathan Mayer (sitar, UK), Manish Agaskar (sitar, Australia), Rashmi Sharma (India), Sreeja Mangat (sitar, India), Ritu Gupta (sitar, India), Sarbani Dasgupta (sarod, India) and the author Matyas Wolter (sitar, Germany).
A beautiful recital in Raag Bhimpalasi and the follow-up in Raag Bahar filmed during his first teaching appointment in Kabul in 1986:
My dear friend, gurubhai, filmmaker, musician and archive-expert Markus Schlaffke shares this unique and beautiful 63min long documentary on Ustad Irfan Muhammadkhan -his heritage and his lineage with us. Filmed in between 2013-2016:
An absolutely outstanding recital in Raag Jaijaiwanti of which the when- and whereabouts remain unclear:
Raga Sindhura performed at the first memorial concert for his father in 1992:
A recording from his second time in Kabul in 2011:
Raag Barwa from his 2023 tour of England:
Another recording from Kabul 2011. Morning Raga Jaunpuri:
Raga Shyam Kalyan performed in Kabul in 2012
A house-concert recording from Khansahibs Kolkata music room. January 2020:
An exquisite Raga Puriya recorded during his 2023 tour of England:
England 2023, Raga Chayanat, a Gharana classic played by its Khalifa:
During the pandemic lots of online discussions took place. This one -arrangend by Max Katz and Anna Morcom takes the cake. © 2021 University of California. All rights reserved.
Live in concert at the Aga Khan museum, Toronto with senior disciple and stellar performer Arnab Chakrabarty:
