Pandit Pran Nath

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Pran Nath (3 November 1918–13 June 1996) was a Hindustani classical singer and teacher of the Kirana gharana (school), with a successful American career.

Pran Nath was born into a wealthy family in Lahore in present-day Pakistan. The family did not approve of his ideas about learning classical music, so he left home early and took up residence with his guru Abdul Wahid Khan of the Kirana gharana, nephew of the very famous Abdul Karim Khan, and stayed with him for a number of years. Both guru and disciple were much attracted to mysticism: Abdul Karim Khan, the Muslim, to Sufism, and Nath, the Hindu, to a Shaivite cult at Dehra Dun. It is said Template:Ref that Nath lived in a cave near the Tapkeswhar temple to Shiva for five years, but eventually he left the cult, when the guru died, for a married life. In 1937, he became a staff artist with All India Radio.

However, Nath stuck to the very austere and increasingly anachronistic singing style that he got from Abdul Wahid – heavy emphasis on alap, and very slow tempi – which suited his voice well, but was not very popular in modernizing India. He supported himself as a music teacher, for example at Delhi University from 1960 to 1970.

In that year, Nath's life took a drastic turn, as he met American composer La Monte Young and artist Marian Zazeela, who persuaded him to go the US. In 1972, he established his Kirana Center for Indian Classical Music in New York City and stayed in the US for the rest of his life. He taught at several universities and above all attracted a strong following among the American minimalist composers. His students include Young, Zazeela, Terry Riley, Henry Flynt, Jon Hassell, Don Cherry, Lee Konitz, Jon Gibson, Yoshi Wada, Rhys Chatham, Michael Harrison, W. A. Mathieu, Sufi Pir Shabda Kahn, Christer Hennix and Simone Forti.

Nath made several recordings in the US, which are valuable documents of an older Kirana style than that practiced by more popular singers such as Gangubai and Krishna Hangal, Mashkoor Ali Khan, Rasiklal Andharia and the extremely popular Bhimsen Joshi. Some more have been released after his death. The most comprehensive document of his singing is the Midnight double CD (Just Dreams JD 003), with two full-length live recordings of the same bandishes in raga Malkauns from 1971 and 1976.

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