Category: welcome

Since its founding in 1985, the Ali Akbar College of Music in Basel, Switzerland, has become one of Europe’s most important centers for the study of the classical music of North India. Its activities include seminars, master classes, private and group instruction and public recitals. In November 2010 the College celebrated its 25th Anniversary with intensive and introductory seminars and a Gala concert. We are so grateful for the wonderful gift of music that our founder, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, brought to us and we remain dedicated to continue spreading this great tradition in the years to come.

Maestro Ali Akbar Khan passed away peacefully on the evening of June 18, 2009, surrounded by his family and close disciples. He was 87 years old and had been suffering from kidney disease for several years. Khansahib’s long life and career spanned epochs and continents. He was one of the last “court musicians” of the old India and was the first Indian musician to record in the West. Yehudi Menuhin, who invited him to perform and record in the USA in 1955, called him “an absolute genius – perhaps the greatest musician in the world.”

North Indian classical music is one of the most highly developed art music’s in the world. Partaking strongly of improvisational elements, the structural framework of the music is provided by a system of modal melodic frameworks called ragas and of rhythmic patterns called talas.