Listening to the Sarangi in a House of Music by Dr. Suhail Yusuf Khan

Dr. Suhail Yusuf Khan earned his Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University in 2024. He is a renowned hereditary musician of the Sarangi, a traditional North Indian bowed instrument, and the first Ph.D. recipient from the Mirasi community of underrepresented musicians from South Asia. His research effectively combines musical expertise with scholarly rigor, delving into the political and emotional dimensions of marginalized Muslim musician communities and the social history of Indian music. Dr. Yusuf has held music residencies at prestigious institutions such as UCLA, Dartmouth, MIT, Wellesley College, Yale University, and Oxford University. He was Visiting Assistant Professor of Music History at the University of Hartford's Hartt School of Music, Dance, and Theater from 2021 to 2024. Currently, Dr. Yusuf is a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is also writing his first book, tentatively titled Mirasitude: Interfaith and Inclusive Ways of Resistance in North India and Beyond.

Lecture: Listening to the Sarangi in a House of Music

Sarangi players are identified as Mīrāsī in Hindustani (North Indian classical) music. The Mīrāsī (from the Arabic mīrās: "inheritance," "heritage") are an under-represented caste of Muslim musicians, dancers, genealogists, and other kinds of tradition-bearers. They were central to forming a pluralistic set of cultural practices in North India and Pakistan but have been marginalized socially and economically by South Asian caste hierarchical ideologies and British colonial policy. This paper illustrates how the dynamics of knowledge and hierarchy are constructed through listening to sarangi within the "houses" or musical lineages of the Mīrāsī, known as gharana.

Performance: Hereditary Compositions on the Sarangi

Accompanied on Tabla by Aqeel Bhatti

Admission is free, but you must preregister for a ticket at Penn Live Arts.

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