Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash represent the seventh generation of a musical lineage known as the Senia Bangash School. Disciples of their father the great sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan, both were initiated into the fine art of sarod playing from an early age, with each brother giving their first public performances at the age of eight.
They have performed across the globe, including appearances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in the USA, Royal Festival Hall, Symphony Hall and Barbican Centre in the UK, Konzerthaus Vienna, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Esplanade Singapore and Sydney Opera house. They have also appeared at festivals including WOMAD, Edinburgh International Festival and World Beat in Brisbane.
Their pioneering approach to the repertoire has led them to collaborate with percussionist Evelyn Glennie, guitarist Derek Trucks of the Allman Brothers Band, Bulgarian violinist Elmira Dararova and folk singer Carrie Newcomer. They also regularly perform their father’s sarod concerto Samaagam which they have played with Britten Sinfonia, London Philharmonic, Adelaide Symphony, Singapore Chinese Symphony and Moscow State Philharmonic Orchestras.
Along with their father they are Gold Medal Winners at the Global Music Awards for their outstanding contribution to the global music industry and excellence in the classical music sphere. This honour was bestowed on the trailblazing trio in recognition of their “Peace Worshipers” album which was released in July 2017 by Affetto Records and distributed by Naxos.
Follow Amaan on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @AmaanAliBangash, and follow Ayaan on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @AyaanAliBangash.
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'La Guitarra esencial' Festival: Sarod trio
August 2023
All pieces were performed with brilliance and breathtaking virtuosity
Helmut Christian, Kleine Zeitung Kultur
Wigmore Hall Residency: 'Samaagam' with Refugee Orchestra Project
January 2023
Ecstatic playing in an east-meets-west celebration...In the presence of the Indian high commissioner a large crowd heard a wonderfully invigorating evening of Indian classical music centred on the great sarod master Amjad Ali Khan...Here he was the soloist in his own concerto, for sarod and a small orchestra of western instruments...As the 30-minute piece progressed... I became gripped by the increasingly ecstatic playing — not just by the soloist but by the instrumentalists around him, mostly imitating his mercurial ragas in wild octaves.
The Refugee Orchestra Project...performed with tremendous spirit. So did Khan’s “warm-up” act: his two sarod-playing sons, Amaan and Ayaan. Along with the cellist Jiaxin Lloyd Webber they delivered Khan’s hauntingly ethereal 2016 piece Singing Angels. Before that, however, the brothers teamed up with the mesmerising tabla player Anubrata Chatterjee in an improvisation on the raga Desh. Sibling rivalry clearly need not involve fighting and torn necklaces. Here it manifested itself much more fruitfully in a contest of virtuosity that was breathtaking in its speed and audacity.
Richard Morrison, The Times ****
Wigmore Hall Residency: 'Sarod to Guitar' with Sean Shibe
January 2023
The meld between cultures was perfect. Shibe is best known for his showy pyrotechnics, but here he had the humility to listen before adding his voice to the other players’. West and East mingled on equal terms.
Michael Church, iNews ****
Wigmore Hall Residency: 'Soul Strings' with Jennifer Pike
January 2023
On stage were the brothers Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash, two great performers on the sarod...on their right perched on a chair was violinist Jennifer Pike, who won the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2002 and has since blossomed into a soloist of searching musical intelligence – as was evidenced by this concert, in which she played alongside the three Indian musicians.
To prepare the ground for this meeting of two playing styles, Pike gave a pleasingly light, effortless performance of the opening Preludio from Bach’s 3rd Partita. She then absented herself from the stage, to allow the three Indian musicians to perform folk melodies from Bengal and Assam, as well as a song by the Nobel Prize-winning poet Rabindranath Tagore. This allowed us to savour the essentially vocal aesthetic shaping those rich twanging notes. The melodic line would aspire upward to a note via a slide, or sink down with graceful melancholy, the tuning wavering expressively – all so different to the cool, clear Western way of shaping a tune.
When Pike joined them to perform two compositions by the brothers’ father and “guru” Amjad Ali Khan, perhaps the best-known sarod player alive, we heard that contrast projected with startling clarity. This isn’t to say Pike hasn’t immersed herself deeply in their style, and doesn’t capture the wayward, spontaneously unfolding nature of Indian melodies. But there was something about her sweetly focussed vibrato and cleanly articulated notes that was miles away from the ecstatic flights of the two brothers. In its modest graceful way Pike’s contribution felt touchingly sincere, and it certainly brought a genuinely singing, sustained quality to the evening.
Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph
Mixing different styles is now a standard musical game, as players borrow alien techniques to freshen up their own. But blending entire classical traditions is an altogether more demanding proposition...Initially Pike [performed] a delicately inflected account of the prelude from Bach’s third Partita. Then it was Amaan and Ayaan’s turn, aided by a tabla player, to do theirs in the form of a composition that started gently, and worked its way up to a fine frenzy. Then, gingerly at first, the four musicians went into what you might call a bi-cultural jam session. There was a certain amount of echoing, as melodies were exchanged between plucked and bowed strings,
Michael Church, iNews ****
Morning Ragas at the BBC Proms
Royal Albert Hall, August 2022
This Prom was magic. In an unbroken 90-minute recital, Amjad Ali Khan and his sons Amaan and Ayaan – each armed with a sarod lute, and backed by percussion from tabla and mridangam players – turned the hall into an enchanted space.
They played four instrumental suites, to which their listeners responded with delight. Every suite – known as a raga – has its own character, its own place in the month, and the right time of day for its performance.
It will also have its own history: the raga Miyan ki Todi, which Amjad played, was created by a musician named Miyan Tansen, who was a star performer in the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar in the 16th century.
All four ragas on this occasion were morning ones, and all exuded a lovely sense of contemplation. Father and sons are all virtuosi, but Amjad carried special authority in the slow deliberation with which he laid out the musical territory through which he would lead us.
In one sense, this music falls comfortably on Western ears, since the sarod’s scale is not very different from the European do-re-mi scale. But the flattening of two or three notes gives it a wonderful feel, and the harmonics – those overtones which sing quietly in the air above the main notes – strengthen that impression.
One could see how integral the audience is to a raga performance, as spectators in the stalls counted time with their fingers, and shouted out their pleasure at particularly lovely turns of phrase. And one could appreciate the natural shape of the form, with a slow beginning, and a gradual increase in tempo and intensity towards the end.
Michael Church, iNews *****
A gorgeous start to the day...full of melody, slowly drawing you in so that the smallest gestures have a dramatic effect...spectacular
Simon Broughton, The Evening Standard ****
Strings for Peace
Zoho Records, May 2020
'A remarkable spiritual and emotional journey...Sharing the great unique treasures of their own artistic traditions...Combining the guitar and sarod results in an extraordinary blend.'
Rolling Stone Magazine
A spectacular collaboration exploring North Indian classical music … at once calming and exciting, brilliant…like so many beautiful sunrises…Fantastic fidelity… Strings for Peace draws you into its hourlong journey with virtuosity at every turn
Audiophile Review
Sophisticated and lively … hypnotic and exciting
MusicWeb International
Romancing Earth’ with Amjad on sarod is gloriously stately… This is a groundbreaking record
Songlines Magazine
Magnificent Sarod and Guitar Interchange. Strings for Peace is a fabulous set of four ragas composed by Indian sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan for guitarist Sharon Isbin … Beautiful, evocative pieces showcase the marvelous interplay between the sarod and the classical guitar.
World Music Central
Royal Festival Hall
London, 31 April 2019
Sustained brilliance and punctuated by rare moments of thrilling intensity...Khan’s talent seems to be shared between his sons, one adopting his speed, the other his delicacy. The elder of the two, Amaan Ali Bangash, strums his instrument fast and rattles out repetitive phrases like a machine gun; the younger son, Ayaan Ali Bangash, delivers a series of sighing riffs and pitch-bending curlicues. One of the highlights of the show comes at the end, when all three sarod players play together, accompanied by the two percussionists (including the remarkable tabla player Vijay Ghate). They trade phrases like blues musicians, one playing an eight-beat riff, the others replicating it note-for-note, with increasing intensity and featuring furious percussion accompaniment from Ghate and mridangam virtuoso Sridar Parthasarathy. It’s an ending that truly hits the audience for six.
John Lewis, The Guardian ****
WOMADelaide
WOMADelaide, March 2019
Quiet moments that shone with subtle intensity... the shimmer of Amjad Ali Khan's sarod set against the quivering strings of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
Jessica Nicholas, Canberra Times
The huge centre stage was filled to capacity as the Sarod trio were joined by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra to present the stunning and acclaimed concerto for Sarod, Samaagam.
The violins of the orchestra droned softly as the three Sarod maestros took turns taking short, brittle solos as the tabla measured time. It felt like a journey through a desert as the bright attack of the Sarod cut through the shifting landscape drawn by the orchestra, as the insistent tabla marked our journey's steps.
The concerto is quite a restrained piece but soon gave way to brighter colours as the orchestra lifted and fell like waves or the fluttering of flags in the wind, the conductor carefully watching the trio of Sarod players as they improvised freely amongst the themes offered by reed and horn, string and bow
Broadway World, Barry Lenny
Selected praise for Ayaan Ali Bangash
From India, a Sarod Dynasty Represented by Father and Sons....both excellent musicians, who play with power and precision and can light up an audience with fast passages.
The New York Times
A young artist who has achieved the right blend of attainments and artistic creativity, ingenious in its instrumental technique and pleasing in harmony.
The Times of India
Ayaan is to be commended for his control over his instrument. He displayed a fine sense of balance. This maturity often eludes those far older.
The Hindustan Times
Ayaan showed definite advancement towards maturity which kept in harness impressive technical acumen.
The Telegraph Calcutta
Dreamy, exciting and dramatic… A technically accomplished player.
Songlines World Music Magazine
Selected praise for Amaan Ali Bangash
Amaan’s playing is packed with rapid-fire stroke work.
The Telegraph Calcutta
Amaan bears the great responsibility of carrying the baton of music tradition that his father has passed on to him.
The Times Kuwait
Sarod maestro enthralls city. Amaan kept the audience glued to their seats.
The Hindustan Times
Like Father, Amaan has a penchant for harnessing the sweet tones and bringing out enchanting melodies that immediately draw the audience to him.
The Statesman New Delhi
Young maestro picks up pace. Amaan announced his attainment of top-grade concert maturity.
The Telegraph Calcutta
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