Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan

Ahead of the Bengal Classical Music Festival – Bangladesh 2014 set to begin for the third year running on November 27 -- Star Arts & Entertainment looks to introduce readers to the artistes who will be performing on the biggest classical music festival in the world. In the first installment are two young, masterful sarod artistes with the deepest of connections to the instrument.

The deep, introspective sound of the sarod, one of the most popular instruments of North Indian Classical Music today, is said to have come to India when Mohammad Hashmi Khan Bangash, a musician and horse trader, came to India with the Afghan rubab in the mid-18th century, and became a court musician to the Maharajah of Rewa (now in Madhya Pradesh). It was his descendants, notably his grandson Ghulam Ali Khan Bangash, a court musician in Gwalior, who changed the rubab into the sarod. Although the lineage cannot be confirmed, there is no dispute that the bloodline of Ghulam Ali Khan Bangash has remained the most prominent in the practice of the instrument in the decades to come. The Senia Bangash Gharana saw Amjad Ali Khan become one of the most prolific musicians of the instrument, under the tutelage of his father Hafiz Ali Khan.

Amjad Ali Khan gave his first stage performance at age seven, so it was no surprise when Amjad Ali's two sons – Amaan and Ayaan, began performing with their father from a very young age. It wasn't long before the two began touring worldwide with their sarod, upholding the name of their father. But while they are masterful in the classical elements, the duo have also become immensely popular among the youth for their wider range of work – be it collaborations with electronic and lounge music or interpretations of Sufi songs, they have taken their music beyond the quintessential classical music ears.

They duo has collaborated with musicians of various genres across the globe and played at prestigious festivals and venues, but it will be their first advent to Dhaka, where their mentor and father, a true great, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan will also perform for the first time at the festival. Following the magic weaved by Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta and Pandit Tejendra Narayan Mazumdar in the last two years' festivals, classical music aficionados will certainly look forward to the performances of both the master and his brightest disciples.