Ali Akbar College of Music
North Indian classical music
The Ali Akbar College of Music was founded in 1967 by master sarode musician Ali Akbar Khan. For over 39 years, the organization was worked to realize Master Khan’s mission of “spreading the music” to serious students and aficionados around the world. The institutional mission of the college is to teach, perform, and preserve the classical music of North India, particularly the Baby Allauddin Khan Seni gharana (or tradition). The college’s teaching is open to all who wish to learn. The college has educated worldwide audience and trained thousands of musicians in the intricacies of raga (melody) and tala (rhythm).
In 1997, Ali Akbar Khan received the NEA National Heritage Fellowship, the nation’s highest honor for traditional artists.
In 2011, a grant from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program provided funding for the college to work intensively with a group of teens, ages 13-19. Sarod was taught by AACM-trained teacher Bruce Hamm. Under the direction of master tabla musician and percussion director Pandit Swapan Chaudari, this initiative launched the institution’s special outreach to teen students.
In 2007, to mark the 85th birthday of Ali Akbar Khan and the college’s 40th anniversary, a grant from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program supported concert performances by the school’s master artists, the archiving of historic documents, and the development of web-based learning courses.