India's musical siblings to make China debut with rare instrument

When musicians Amaan Ali Khan and Ayaan Ali Khan perform in Shanghai at the weekend and in Beijing later in the month, audiences will get a taste of Indian classical music through a rare instrument called the sarod.

Sons of the award-winning sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan, Amaan, 38, and Ayaan, 36, are seventh-generation players of the instrument, the name of which is said to have been derived from a Persian word associated with music.

In an interview with China Daily ahead of the brothers' China debut on Saturday, they talk about the lute-like stringed instrument that has a steel fingerboard and a belly usually covered with goatskin.