Background
The youngest son of Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, Shafqat Ali Khan is a master of the Khyal tradition of Pakistani classical music and Indian classical music
The youngest son of Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, Shafqat Ali Khan is a master of the Khyal tradition of Pakistani classical music and Indian classical music
Performing from the age of seven, when he appeared at the Lahore Music Festival at Lahore, Pakistan in 1979. Khan has continued to attract attention with his soulful singing. On 19 December 2015, Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) paid rich tributes to classical singers Ustad Salamat Ali Khan and Ustad Nazakat Ali Khan at the Shakir Ali Museum in Lahore, Pakistan.
This event was organized in remeberance of the two maestros who are considered to be the pioneers of classical singing in Pakistan.
Khan performed at the Folklife Festival of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, District of Columbia in 1988 and again in 1996. ~ Craig Harris, All Music Guide.
His family represents a 500-year lineage of musicians of the Sham Chaurasia gharana, descendants of the two famed court musicians to the artistically-devoted Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great. Those court musicians were Chand Khan and Suraj Khan (Shafqat Ali Khan"s forefathers).
Suraj Khan used to sing "morning ragas" and Chand Khan used to sing "evening ragas" in the emperor"s court.
Shafqat Ali Khan has performed concerts throughout Europe with several important concerts in France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland (Geneva Festival). He is a well-known artist in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. He has also performed in the United States of America and Canada.
His recording labels are HMV (United Kingdom), Electric and Music Industries (India), Electric and Music Industries (Pakistan), WaterLily Acoustics (United States of America), MegaSound (India) and Folk Heritage (Pakistan).
Shafqat Ali Khan received Pride of Performance Award by the President of Pakistan in 2009.
Describing a performance by Shafqat Ali Khan, The New York Times wrote, "exuberant complications, in which melodic gestures join hand-waving and synchronized finger-pointing to form an eloquent symbiosis." Khan has received numerous awards including the Amir Khusro Award, as "best classical singer", in 1986, a gold medal from Faisalabad University in 1987 and a Ghanda Award from New Delhi University in 1995.
