An 81-year-old sarod virtuoso from India, two of his sons, and a full symphony orchestra are sharing a stage at UC San Diego this month in a program that blends centuries of Indian classical tradition with Western orchestral scoring. La Jolla Symphony & Chorus and Amjad Ali Khan will present two concerts titled “Confluence,” combining South Asian musical traditions with Western classical forms, and pairing improvisation with written scores.
The concerts are set for Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 25 at 2 p.m. at Mandeville Auditorium on the UC San Diego campus, according to La Jolla Symphony & Chorus. The program builds toward Khan's sarod concerto “Samaagam,” which the organization describes as weaving together Indian classical tradition and the symphonic world. As the San Diego Union-Tribune reported, Khan will perform alongside his sons Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash, with all three recognized as masters of the sarod, a northern Indian lute-like string instrument.
A Family Tradition on the Sarod
Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash are the sons of the legendary sarod maestro, according to the musician's own website. Their family's work together extends well beyond this engagement: the Grammy-winning project “Meditations: The Reflections of His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” a collaboration between the Dalai Lama, Khan, and both sons, is documented on Amaan Ali Bangash's official site. That project won the Grammy for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording, according to the Union-Tribune.
Per the same report, “Samaagam” includes a section that allows principal players to improvise, and Khan sings during the piece. Ayaan Ali Bangash told the Union-Tribune that the concerto builds in room for the orchestra's principal musicians to improvise alongside the family. Amaan Ali Bangash has said his family seeks to convey togetherness, compassion, peace and harmony through music, per the same account.
A New Campus Partnership Launches
The October concerts will launch a new partnership between La Jolla Symphony & Chorus and UC San Diego, the Union-Tribune reported, with the collaboration initiated by the university's Qualcomm Institute and Department of Music. Khan and his sons are set to become artists in residence at the department in winter 2026. The event is presented in partnership with the UC San Diego Qualcomm Institute and Department of Music, and supported by the Ravi Shankar Foundation, according to La Jolla Symphony & Chorus.
Music director Sameer Patel, who also serves as artistic director of the San Diego Youth Symphony, said Khan represents a musical tradition hundreds of years old that continues to move forward, per the Union-Tribune. Patel, who is Indian-American, will also conduct Juhi Bansal's “Flash, Shimmer, Glow, Spark,” a piece inspired by the natural phenomenon of bioluminescence, according to La Jolla Symphony & Chorus. Bansal grew up in India and Hong Kong and now lives in Los Angeles, the Union-Tribune reported.
Rounding Out the Program
The Confluence program is rounded out by Paul Dukas' “The Sorcerer's Apprentice” and George Enescu's “Romanian Rhapsody No. 1,” according to theresandiego.com. The concerts are part of La Jolla Symphony & Chorus's 2026-27 season, titled “Forces of Nature,” which spans repertoire from Mahler to Indian classical music, the outlet reported. All concerts in the season are held at Mandeville Auditorium on the UC San Diego campus.
Discounted student tickets are available for the concerts, and the Tix4Kids program offers free tickets to kids and their caregivers, per theresandiego.com. Tix4Kids separately offers free tickets to K-12 students for all La Jolla Symphony & Chorus concerts, according to the Union-Tribune, and the program is supported by the Peggy and Robert Matthews Foundation, the City of San Diego Arts & Culture Organizational Support Program and patron donations. The Union-Tribune also reported that La Jolla Symphony & Chorus offers discount tickets to students from area colleges.
A City Honor With a Dated Precedent
San Diego has separately recognized Khan's stature in the music world. The city officially designated April 13 as Sarod Maestro Amjad Ali Khan Day, according to News18, which noted that Khan is a recipient of India's Padma Vibhushan, described as the country's second-highest civilian honor. A San Diego government document, however, lists the designation under the date March 25, 2025, a discrepancy that remains unresolved in available records.
San Diego's gesture echoes a similar honor decades earlier. Then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis declared April 20, 1984, as Amjad Ali Khan Day in Boston, according to News18's report. Khan's connection to American audiences stretches back even further than that, with the Union-Tribune reporting that he first played sarod in the United States with an Asian Society ensemble on television's Ed Sullivan Show in the early 1960s.
