He calls himself the “musician of the musicians.” This is no hyperbole. For Nishat Khan's renditions on the sitar has all the music world sit up and listen. "I always search for new compositions, I like to play different, difficult pieces and simply love challenges," Nishat Khan told Metrolife.

Khan, who was in the City for a musical concert along with violinist Vanessa-Mae, is undoubtedly among the foremost virtuosos of the sitar. Khan flawlessly integrates the discipline and technique of his ancestors with his own distinctive musical approach. The sensitive phrasing and remarkable intuition of various musical cultures set him apart from the others of his ilk.

On his style...
As you grow as an artist, the style also keeps evolving. It's like your personal growth as a human being. But in a gifted artist, his or her potential, maturity, thought process and philosophy matters a great deal in every performance and music composition.

Must be quite challenging to keep the classical tradition alive...
It's not a challenge at all because I am a classical sitar player and this is an element that I don't want to lose. There's a certain seriousness about my music.

Take on fusion concerts...
I think that fusion is something that one should really think about because with spontaneity, there must also be a process going on in one's mind. Artists in a fusion concert must know what sounds beautiful. They must match it well.

His experiments with music...
No I don't experiment with music at all. My mood and philosophy stands out in all my compositions.

On composing music...
I think that if my music is good it has to appeal to the people. I don't think that any audience is a bad audience. An artist has to be sincere and committed to the art. If you are sincere and your music is powerful then no audience is bad.