Ustad Bismillah Khan was a famous Indian Shehnai player. He had expertise in Indian classical music. Bismillah Khan was born in Dumraon, British India, into a family of traditional Muslim musicians and moved to Varanasi when he was a child. He was born on March 21, 1916. He learned to play Shehnai from his maternal uncle Ali Baksh and the temples of Ganga and Banaras had a special role in his life. He was awarded Bharat Ratna in the year 2001. He died on August 21, 2006.
Bismillah Khan Biography
Birth Name
Qamaruddin Khan
Birth
21 March 1916
Place of birth
Dumraon, Shahabad district, Bihar and Orissa province, British India
Dead
21 August 2006
Place of death
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
Occupation
Musician
Machine
The clarinet
Style
Indian classical music
Some interesting facts related to Ustad Bismillah Khan
Bismillah Khan was born in March 1916. His childhood name was Qamaruddin Khan.
Bismillah Khan started his musical training at the young age of 6 with his uncle Ali Baidu Vilayatu.
In 1947, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru invited Bismillah Khan to perform live on the occasion from the ramparts of the Red Fort in Delhi.
Bismillah Khan's first public appearance was at the Indian Music Conference in Kolkata in 1937.
In the year 1992, a big auditorium was also built in the name of Bismillah Khan in Tehran (Iran).
Bismillah Khan has received all three Padma awards, namely Padma Shri in the year 1961, Padma Bhushan in the year 1968 and Padma Vibhushan in the year 1980.
During the burial of Ustad Bismillah Khan, he was given a 21-gun salute by the Indian Army.