Author Archives: savethesitar

A Foreword for the Sitar Gharanas of Pakistan

Dr. Lowell Lybarger is a tabla player and the current director of the Music Lab at the Arkansas Tech University. He has also been a visiting professor at the NCA, where he was a mentor to Ali Ayub. He inspired him to start his research project on the Sitar gharanas of Pakistan, and has writtenContinue reading “A Foreword for the Sitar Gharanas of Pakistan”

Professor Allyn Miner’s Review of the Sitar Gharanas of Pakistan

Allyn Miner is a professor emeritus in the Department of South Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a sitar player and the author of Sitar and Sarod in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (1997) and the Minqar-i Musiqar: Hazrat Inayat Khan’s 1912 work on Indian music theory and practice (2016). She visited the National College ofContinue reading “Professor Allyn Miner’s Review of the Sitar Gharanas of Pakistan”

Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Mughal-e-Azam

Bade Ghulam Ali Khan was a legendary classical singer, with an emphasis on the classical. He refused out of hand to work in the film industry, despite many requests from well-known film and music directors. He restricted himself only to classical music; which is why it was so surprising when he actually agreed to workContinue reading “Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Mughal-e-Azam”

Uncovering Pakistan’s Sitar Story

Legend has it when the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb banned music, his court musicians decided to appeal to his sense of mercy to save their livelihood. One Friday, as Aurangzeb was going to the mosque, he saw an elaborate funeral procession being carried by the musicians, who were ‘crying aloud with great grief, and many signsContinue reading “Uncovering Pakistan’s Sitar Story”