KARACHI, March 11: Music lovers on Sunday enjoyed a melody-filled session of afternoon ragas on the last (and cloudy) day of the 11-day first performing arts festival organised by the National Academy of Performing Arts on its premises.

The show kicked off with Asif Sinan’s presentation of raga pilo which set the tone for the rest of the programme. He was followed by Napa alumna Irum Nafees who sang two known numbers, one of them was the famous ‘Banwri chakori kare’ originally sung by Madam Noor Jehan. She was accompanied on stage by Nafees Ahmed (harmonium) and Waqas (tabla). Noted sitar player Nafees Ahmed was kind enough to help the students with their performance as a musician.

Irum Nafees was then joined by vocalist Ahsan Shabbir and together they sang raga shudh sarang (‘Mann ka sajan se mael’).

Ahsan Shabbir’s solo rendition of the ghazal ‘Ishq ke laakhon rangon ka hai’ was next.

The second instrumental of the show was performed by Ahsan Bari (guitar) along with Shani (bass), Gul (sarangi) and Waqas (tabla). Their recital of raga Multani was nicely executed. Some of the notes that the young sarangi nawaz played were extraordinary and touched the heart. Gul plays a soulful sarangi and perhaps does not even know about it. Not very far behind is tabla player Waqas. He has not yet perfected the art of tuning his instrument but has lots to look forward to.

Nadir Abbas was the last singer of the show. He began with a decent rendition of raga bheempilasi and rounded off the event by singing a thumri ‘Gori torey naina’ which had a difficult beat. Nadir Abbas and Waqas managed the item well.

A similar session of afternoon ragas was also held last week.—Peerzada Salman