MITHAS event to honor Ali Akbar Khan

MIT’s Heritage of the Arts in Southasia (MITHAS) will hold a concert and lecture/demonstration this weekend to commemorate the life of Ali Akbar Khan, the Indian-born musician who died in June.

The event will start at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 8, in MIT’s Wong Auditorium. George Ruckert, a senior lecturer in the Music and Theater Arts Section, will begin with a concert on the sarod, a stringed musical instrument that Khan played.

The remainder of the program will include a lecture/demonstration with Ruckert at 1 p.m.; a performance by Bruce Hamm on the sarod; and a performance by Peter van Gelder on the sitar and Abhijit Banerjee, the Ford International Professor of Economics, on the tabla.

The event is open to the public. Admission is free with an MIT ID but costs $30 for non-members, $25 for seniors and $10 for non-MIT students who have an ID from another institution.

MITHAS, founded in 1993, is dedicated to the classical experience in performing arts and to the propagation of these arts by bringing musicians from across the globe to present at Boston and surrounding areas.