Sarangi soirée with Illyas Khan

Sarangi player Illyas Khan tells us that he learned the tabla first before he started playing sarangi, and it was a baba who had predicted he would do wonders in this field
Illyas Khan
Illyas Khan

As a part of the Francophonie 2023 celebration, Alliance Française of Madras in association with the Quebec Government Office in Mumbai and Consulate of Canada brings fusion music concert — Geet-Taar & Taal, featuring Nadaka, Illyas Khan, and Chandrashekhar Ravindra Gandhi. We caught up with Illyas Khan ahead of the performance.

Illyas Khan was born and brought up in Baroda, Gujarat. He started studying music at the age of 12, and went on to finish the Faculty of Performing Arts at Maharaja Sayaji Rao University in Baroda. Apart from playing the traditional sarangi, he is also a traditional singer in many fields like Sufi singing, Gujarati Garba, and Hindi bhajans. He has collaborated with music companies as a music director in the USA and Europe. Illyas Khan travels worldwide performing traditional or fusion styles with artistes from different cultures. He also teaches at the Faculty of Performing Arts —MS University of Baroda. He has also worked with many famous musicians  like tabla maestros Ustad Zakir Hussain, Abdul Sattar Tari Khan, Sabir Khan; ghazal singers Ustad GulamAli, Mohammad Hussain, Ahmad Hussain, Aslam Khan; kathak dancers Pandit Birju Maharaj, Pandit Partap Pawar, and many others.

You started studying music at 12. What attracted you to it?
I was born and brought up in a family where there was music all around me. I grew up listening to every type of music — Punjabi, Rajasthani, folk, and more. My training started at the age of 12, but I was introduced to music way earlier when I was just three years old! My training for sarangi actually started when I was 12. 

Is there a reason you picked up the sarangi? How different is it from a sitar or a veena?
As a child, I was introduced to tabla. But I would watch my father teach sarangi to his students, and I would sit and learn those techniques. There was one baba in our locality who we called bori wale baba. He had told my father to teach me  sarangi, saying I will do wonders in this field. That’s how my journey with sarangi started. Sarangi came from the word sou rangi which means 100 colours and it is called so because this is one instrument that can adapt itself to any form — be it bhajan, Punjabi, folk, Rajashthani, etc. It was also Raavana’s most loved instrument.

You also sing Sufi, Gujarati Garba, and Hindi bhajans — what is the genre you connect with most? 
I do dabble in a lot of genres, but the most I connect with is Sufi because I believe that it is the most soulful music. 

What is it about music that, in being so vast, is also something that binds? 
I believe music has a global voice; the language of music connects everyone. For example, in Hindustani classical music, we have sa, then in other parts of the world, there will be musicians who will have the similar sa but it will not be known as sa. What I am trying to say is the names for sa may be different at different places, but they will still have a connection with listeners. 

You are also into fusion music. Can you explain little bit on that? 
It was a trip to London that I had taken which made me explore fusion music, where you combine two different genres of music, and the result is a treat to the ears. I have been into fusion music for years now.

What will you be playing for Chennai this time? 
I will keep that a surprise. But I would like everyone to join us and explore a new world of music. 
I can assure that the audience is going to enjoy and connect with the music we churn out at the concert.  

Entry free. 
April 20.7 pm.
At Edouard Michelin Auditorium,
Alliance Française  
of Madras.

rupam@newindianexpress.com
@rupsjain

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