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Ali Akbar Khan

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Born in 1922 in Shibpore, East Bengal, now Bangladesh, as son of the legendary Acharya Baba ; died at 87 at his home in San Francisco on June 18, 2009, having suffered four years of kidney-related illness. His vocal training began at 3 and, after studying the surbahar, sitar and tabla, focused on the sarod. Ali Akbar Khan was one of today's most accomplished Indian classical musicians. Late American violinist , who became one of his earliest champions in the West, said he considered Ali Akbar Khan "an absolute genius, the greatest musician in the world." Regarded as a "National Living Treasure" in India, he is admired by both Eastern and Western musicians for his brilliant compositions and his mastery of the sarod (a beautiful, 25-stringed Indian instrument). Khan was the husband of (his third wife) and the former husband of (his second wife). He was the father of , , and , the brother of , the uncle of , the cousin of , the brother-in-law of , and the former brother-in-law of (due to Shankar's marriage to his first wife, Annapurna Devi).