UpdateBot at 22:25, 8 January 2022

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{{Use Pakistani English|date=December 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Akhtar Hussain
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1959}}
| birth_place = [[Hyderabad Deccan]], India
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality =
| citizenship = Pakistani
| education =
| occupation = [[Sarangi]] player
| known_for =
| salary =
| networth =
| spouse =
| relatives = Ghulam Mohammed Khan (1910 – 1974) (grandfather)<br/>A noted sarangi player of his time
| children = Gul Mohammed Hussain (sarangi player)
}}
'''Akhtar Hussain''', (born 1959) is a [[sarangi]] player from [[Karachi]], Pakistan.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://jang.com.pk/thenews/mar2008-weekly/nos-23-03-2008/kol.htm|title="I feel like a knight when I play the sarangi," Ustad Akhtar Hussain|website=The News International (newspaper)|author=Sabeen Jamil|date=23 March 2008|access-date=1 December 2019}}</ref><ref name=Dawn>[https://www.dawn.com/news/957408 Fading notes (scroll down to read about sarangi player Akhtar Hussain)] Dawn (newspaper), Published 7 April 2009, Retrieved 2 December 2019</ref>

His grandfather, Ghulam Mohammed Khan (1910 – 1974), was associated with the court of the [[Nizam of Hyderabad|Nawab of Hyderabad Deccan]] and was highly regarded for his sarangi performances at private gatherings of Nawab.<ref name="auto"/>

==Early life and family==
Akhtar Hussain was born in 1959 in Hyderabad Deccan, India.<ref name="auto"/><ref name=Dawn/> His grandfather, Ghulam Mohammed Khan, had migrated to [[Faisalabad District]] in 1964 from Hyderabad Deccan and later moved to Lahore to work as a sarangi player at [[Radio Pakistan]], [[Lahore]], where he died in 1974. His grandson, Akhtar Hussain, later worked in [[Sindh]] province at Khairpur Radio Station as a contract musician for over 22 years playing background sarangi for many folk dramas on radio. He later decided to move to Karachi in 2006 to settle there. He was hired by [[National Academy of Performing Arts]] (NAPA) in Karachi, where he started earning a reasonable income by playing sarangi there. Music critics often argue that sarangi, out of all bowed string instruments, is the closest to the human voice. They say that when played by a true maestro, sarangi can express the sadness one experiences in love.<ref name="auto"/>

In 2009, 50-year-old Akhtar Hussain was struggling through hard times and had taken shelter with his teenaged son in a small home at an [[imambargah]] in Karachi. He was not happy with the lack of support for classical musicians by the [[Government of Pakistan]].<ref name=Dawn/>

Akhtar Hussain's son, Gul Muhammad Hussain, also following the family tradition, became a sarangi player in Karachi, Pakistan and earns {{PKR|20,000}} a month.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/104002/no-strings-attached-sarangi-player-goes-through-the-daily-grind-even-after-making-it-big/|title=No strings attached: Sarangi player goes through the daily grind even after making it big|date=15 January 2011|work=The Express Tribune (newspaper)|access-date= 1 December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1318641 |author=Haneen Rafi|date=6 March 2017|title=Music lovers treated to a superior performance on final day of APMC (All Pakistan Music Conference- Karachi)|newspaper=Dawn (newspaper)|access-date=1 December 2019}}</ref>

In 2009, Akhtar Hussain revealed that he had been suffering from [[asthma]] for some time.<ref name=Dawn/>

In 2011, Akhtar Hussain was ranked among the top five sarangi players of Pakistan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pakistan360degrees.com/music-and-culture-in-pakistan-top-five-sarangi-nawaz-of-pakistan/ |title=Music and culture in Pakistan: Top Five Sarangi Nawaz of Pakistan|author=MairaS|date=28 November 2011|website=Pakistan 360 degrees website|access-date=2 December 2019}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://www.britannica.com/art/sarangi Description of Sarangi (musical instrument) on Encyclopedia Britannica website]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4zxVHcAtxk Akhtar Hussain (sarangi player) interview on YouTube]
*[https://www.travel-culture.com/pakistan/music/instruments.shtml Music instruments of Pakistan on travel-culture.com website]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hussain, Akhtar}}
[[Category:Sarangi players]]
[[Category:1959 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Pakistani classical musicians]]
[[Category:Instrumental gharanas]]

Akhtar Hussain sarangi player - Revision history

UpdateBot at 22:25, 8 January 2022