Hidayat Inayat Khan

Who is Hidayat Inayat Khan?

Hidayat Inayat-Khan is a classical composer, conductor and Representative-General of the International Sufi Movement.

He is the son of Sufi Master Hazrat Inayat Khan and Pirani Ameena Begum; brother of Noor Inayat Khan and Vilayat Inayat Khan; and father of Fazal Inayat-Khan, who led the International Sufi Movement from 1968 to 1982.

His western musical education began in Paris in 1932 at the L'Ecole Normale de Musique, in the violin class of Bernard Sinsheimer; the composition class of Nadia Boulanger; and the orchestra class of Diran Alexanian. Later, he attended chamber music courses given by the Lener Quartet in Budapest.

In 1942, Hidayat Inayat-Khan became Professor of music at the Lycee Musical de Dieulefit, France, and later, in the Netherlands, joined the orchestra of Haarlem as violinist. He followed the courses of orchestra conducting by Toon Verhey. In 1952, Hidayat Inayat-Khan conducted the orchestra of 's-Hertogenbosch for the world wide broadcasting of his Po'me en Fa for orchestra and piano and in the same year, founded his first chamber music orchestra ensemble.

Performance highlights in Hidayat Inayat-Khan’s professional life include the playing, on 4 May 1957, of his Zikar Symphony at Salle Pleyel, Paris, conducted by George Pretre, in a Pasdeloup concert. On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi's centenary, on 21 November 1969, the Gandhi Symphony was played in a special concert organized by UNESCO in the Netherlands. This was repeated in 1971 during a broadcasting of "The voice of America", as well as on the United Nations Radio in the USA and was later recorded by the US Armed Forces Radio Stations in a worldwide Carmen Dragon show.