Who is Ustad Allah Rakha Khan?
Ustad Allah Rakha Khan is a South Asian classical music artist known for Khayal, Sarangi. Stream 3 recordings on Saarey Music.
Ustad Allah Rakha Khan (1932 - 2015) was one of the leading sarangi players in Pakistan.
He acquired his initial music education in classical music and sarangi playing from his father, Ustad Lal Din and later he became the student of three renowned sarangi players, Ustad Ahmadi Khan, Ustad Alladiya Khan and Ustad Nathu Khan.
Ustad Allah Rakha was born in Muzaffar in in 1932. During early childhood, his family moved to Amritsar where he was raised. After partition of the Pak-Indo sub continent in 1947, Allah Rakha migrated to Pakistan and settled Karachi, where he also remembers to have had the honor of playing live for Quaid e Azam M. Ali Jinnah. It was in Karachi that he met Ustad Barey Ghulam Ali Khan and honed his skills as a sarangi accompanist to performing musicians. He moved to Lahore in 1948, and for almost two decades, he worked at Radio Pakistan, Lahore. Here, his knowledge of music was further broadened during his association with Ustad Sardar Khan. He moved to Rawalpindi in 1968, and became a regular employee of Radio Pakistan, Rawalpindi where he served till his retirement in 1992. In 1995, he was awarded the Pride of Performance by the Government of Pakistan for his lifelong devotion to classical music.
