Music maestro Ustad Rashid Khan passed away at a private hospital in Kolkata on Tuesday, reports said.
According to reports, Rashid Khan was undergoing treatment due to prostate cancer.
His health took a downturn after experiencing a cerebral attack last month. The 55-year-old from the Rampur-Sahaswan Gharana initially received treatment at Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital, reports said.
According to doctors, Khan passed away at around 3:45 pm today.
Condoling the demise of the great musician, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that it is a great loss for the entire country and the entire music fraternity.
Taking to platform X, the West Bengal Chief Minister said, "Deeply saddened by the tragic demise of Ustad Rashid Khan, one of the greatest exponents of Indian classical music of our times."
Ustad Rashid Khan is the great-grandson of the legendary Ustad Inayat Hussain Khan Saheb (the founder of the Rampur Sahaswan Gharana). He was born on 1st July, 1966 at Badaun, a small town in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
His talents were first noticed by his uncle Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan another great exponent of Hindustani Classical music on hearing his ocassional hummings. Rashid studied in Mumbai for about an year whereafter he came back to his hometown.
Rashid gave his first performance at the age of eleven, in 1977. In 1979, he performed at the ITC Sangeet Sammmelan at New Delhi. He did not look back since and his growing popularity has been reflected in his increasing participation in all well known music conferences in India and extensive tours the world over.
A notable achievement of Ustad Rashid Khan is the infusion of emotional content into his melodic elaboration. This was generally considered to be lacking in the styles of the older exponents.
