Preserving and Accessing the Ali Akbar Khan Collection

The goal of the Ali Akbar Khan Foundation, in conjunction with AACM, is to set-up a public library that would include Khansahib’s collection of materials for the purpose of musical study, enjoyment, and to further the life and love of this gharana. It is the desire of Khansahib and the staff and students of AACM to have a library established as a part of the AACM.

Work completed:

Professional archivist, Claeora Styron, has completed a survey of the collection. We have also completed the main database as well as other interconnected databases. Many areas of the collection have been digitized. The following list consists of components that have been preserved.

• 12,000 pages of handwritten musical compositions from Baba Allauddin Khan’s (Ali Akbar Khan’s father) notebooks digitized and printed
• 3,000 pages of translation from Bengali to English of Baba Allauddin Khan’s collection
• Over 2,000 photos digitized. Referencing the photos is in progress.
• 1,900 Reviews and articles dated between 1960-2001 digitized and copied
• 4,000 pages of a 10,000 page collection of notation from Ali Akbar Khan’s classes digitized and entered into a database

Work that needs to be completed:

• Converting 1,000 concerts from reel-to-reel, cassette, and DAT to wave files along with the necessary meta data
• Converting 3,500+ class audio tapes from reel-to-reel and cassette to wave files along with the necessary meta data
• Converting 80 concert videos from VHS, Beta and Sony 8mm to DVD
• Converting 370 class videos from VHS to DVD
• Digitizing 6,000 pages of class notation
• Translating the remaining 9,000 pages of Baba’s compositions, then digitizing the translations
• Entering the data from all of the digitized materials into the databases for access

For questions or more information about the library work please contact Mary Khan at mary@aacm.org.

AACM thanks the following organizations for their generous support:

And the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation