Classical music students mesmerise audience

An evening of classical music featuring students of the Classical Music Heritage Trust (CMHT) was held at the PNCA Tuesday evening and was attended by a select audience of music aficionados including parents and siblings of the young artistes.

Their guru and teacher, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan was also in the audience as were some of the founders of the CMHT as well as former boss of the World Bank in Pakistan, John Wall, who has been a great supporter of the CMHT and is visiting Pakistan these days. It was good to see that most invitees arrived on time and the fact that the programme began only a little late was also creditable.

Addressing the gathering founder member, CMHT, Iftikhar Rashid welcomed the audience warmly and said the reason to hold the concert was to instil confidence in the young students. He also announced that Sardar Asef had promised to come, however he was slightly delayed because of a meeting but they would start the programme and welcome him when he did – setting a good precedent of not waiting for VIP’s to arrive. Praising the government for including art and culture in the next five year plan, something which had never been done before, he said the CMHT was formed entirely on their own initiative by seven music lovers to preserve and revive the dying tradition of classical music and its academy had passed on 10,000 man hours of lessons in classical music under the tutelage of Ustad Fateh Ali Khan and other maestros. Adding that this concert was their first exposure to an audience and he wished them well, he concluded by urging the audience not to applaud the young artistes in between their singing in case they were disturbed and went off beat but to applaud them heartily at the end of their performance to encourage them.

One of the students, Faheem Bangash, acted as anchor person for the evening and the programme began with Raja Riaz vocalizing raag ‘bharvi’ followed by Samad Ghafoor (‘koshak dohani’); Natasha Ejaz (‘bhem palasi’) Yasir Abbas (‘malkos’); Kanwal Iftikhar (jon puri); Saadia Mirza in a duet with another female vocalist whose name was not on the programme (‘khamaj’) Ahmed Jamal and Ateeq (‘kandhara’); Ateeq Rifhat Soofizadah (‘puriya dahnaseri’); Sijjal Ali Sadaqat (‘darbari’); Faheem Bangash (‘aeman’) and Abbas Ali Khan (bhagesheri). Each student followed the tradition of paying respect to his/her teacher by asking for his blessing and permission before starting to sing.

They were accompanied

by Umeed Ali on the harmonium and Shahid Jimmy

on the tabla with some students also acting as accompanists.

Needless to say the audience could not refrain from showing its appreciation and applauded the students in between their various musical overtures by clapping as well as voicing verbal accolades, so it was obvious that the performances were of a high standard – and it goes to the students credit that they did not miss a beat though their may have been a slight fluff here and there which was probably noticed only by the experts! While the formal side of the performance was enjoyable, even more so was the fact that the students sang as if they were really enjoying themselves – all had pleasant expressions on their face, something which makes listening to live music more enjoyable, the visual combining with the vocal to create a special kind of ambience for the audience.

In the end, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan said he had refrained from singing because it

was the student’s big day

and thanked the CMHT for keeping alive the tradition of classical music at its academy and by arranging concerts.

By Ishrat Hyatt (Islamabad)

Source: The News