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Ustad Imrat Khan is one of the world's greatest players of the surbahar, a deep-toned, sitar-like stringed instrument that was developed by his great-grandfather, Ustad Sahabdad Khan, and Ustad Imdad Khan. With its four-octave range, the instrument is used to play the ultra-strict dhrupad style of Indian classical music. Still young when his father died, Imrat Khan was taught to play the surbahar and to sing in the highly ornamental classical vocal style of khyal by his mother, Bashiran Begum, and his maternal grandfather, Ustad Bandeh Hassan. Forming one of the first sitar-and-surbahad duos with his older brother, Vilayat Khan, Imrat helped to pioneer the unique gayaki ang ("vocal manner") approach to Indian instrumental music. In 1956, the two brothers were invited to accompany the first Indian cultural delegation to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Although they elected to go their separate ways, Imrat and Vilayat have both continued to play major roles in the evolution of India...