Mohammad Sharif Khan (Born in 1926,Poonch,British India – Died 26 May 1980,Pakistan) known as Ustad Sharif KhanPoonchwaley was a classical player ofsitar,vichitra veena and raza been (rudra veena) in thehindustani classical music tradition.[1][2]
Sharif Khan was born atHisar, now inHaryana, India in a family of musicians.[3]He learned sitar from his father Ustad Rahim Bakhsh Khan, who himself was a student of Ustad Imdad Khan. His father, in fact, was a court musician of the Raja of Poonch. Sharif Khan Poonchwaley learned vichitra veena from Ustad Abdul Aziz Khan Beenkar.[1][3][2]
Ustad Sharif Khan Poonchwaley‚ belongs toEtawah gharana (Imdadkhani gharana) (traditional school) of sitar. He performed as a young sitar player at the YMCA Hall inLahore in 1942. Some renowned luminaries of music also performed there with him includingBade Ghulam Ali Khan ofKasur, Ustad Fayyaz Khan ofBaroda and UstadAmir Khan ofIndore. All of these musicians were invited to participate in the 2-day music festival atLahore in 1942. He played a key role in promoting the sitar inPakistan.[3]
He was a member of the early original team hired by the first Managing DirectorAslam Azhar ofPakistan Television,Lahore Center to perform as a sitar player, when it first started TV broadcasts in 1964. Everywhere he went, he charmed audiences with his stylishness, registering the intricacies and subtleties of otherwise typicalragas. He also played the sitar for some of the film compositions of Pakistan's noted film music directorKhwaja Khurshid Anwar and before thePartition of India in 1947, he played the sitar for film music director PanditAmar Nath.[3]
In 2011, his son Ashraf Sharif Khan gives sitar performances at music festivals in Pakistan.[4][1][3]