لندن راگا: شکیر خان اور شہباز حسین

You can hear Hindustani (North Indian) classical music live in London at London Ragas, KalaSudha's concert series in London. Its evenings are baithaks: the audience sits close to the musicians. London Ragas can take place at different venues across London, and KalaSudha plans to add more baithaks in other parts of London. KalaSudha is based in London, so every concert tour it organises also plays London once.

See how to book tickets for a London concert and how to get to the venues.

Shakir Khan is a sitar player of the Etawah gharana, and the son and disciple of Shahid Parvez. He plays in the gayaki ang, which asks a sitarist to produce from strings the ornaments, curves and sustain that a singer makes with breath. He gave his first public performance at 11. The Sangeet Natak Akademi gave him the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for 2019, presented in 2023. Through SwarSetu, founded in memory of his grandfather Aziz Khan, he teaches students worldwide.

Ustad Shahbaz Hussain is a tabla player who teaches across the north of England. He first studied under his father, the vocalist Mumtaz Hussain, then learned from Faiyaz Khan of the Delhi gharana and from Shaukat Hussain Khan and Allah Rakha of the Punjab gharana. He leads the fusion group Indus and accompanies touring classical artists. He teaches at the University of Newcastle and the University of Huddersfield, and received the Son of Lahore Award from the Government of Pakistan in 2008.

A sitar is a long-necked lute with a gourd body, movable curved frets, and a set of sympathetic strings running beneath the playing strings.

The curved frets let a player pull a string sideways and bend one note into another. Players call that bend the meend, and the sympathetic strings keep ringing behind it.

Read about the tabla and the santoor.

The Etawah gharana, also called the Imdadkhani gharana, is a school of sitar and surbahar playing that formed in the 19th century around Imdad Khan. It takes its name from Etawah, a town near Agra. Family accounts begin with his father, Sahabdad Khan. Imdad Khan based his style on khayal singing, which grew into the gayaki ang, a way of playing that follows the voice. Vilayat Khan and Shahid Parvez carried it on, and Shahid Parvez trained his son Shakir Khan.