Dan Tidten, head of the Press and Culture Section at the German Embassy, welcomed a large audience to a German-Pakistani fusion concert at Kuch Khaas on Thursday evening.

The audience sat in a semi circle in the lawns at Kuch Khaas and gas heaters provided pleasant warmth in the chilly night. Christoph Reuter, the German leader of the four-member band, remarked that he had always heard that Pakistan was a hot country but found it to be very cold this January. Referring to a gas heater on the stage, he quipped that he had never performed with an open flame on the stage before.

His band, ‘Berlin to Lahore’ is a sophisticated ‘world chamber music’ band including sitar master Ashraf Sharif Khan and guest musician Shabbaz Hussain from Lahore on table.

Christoph Reuter is the pianist and composer while Thomas Rüdiger from Berlin is an expert percussionist.

“From the moment Ashraf and I met at a music festival some years ago, we both knew that one day we would write our own music together, play it at concerts and make an album,” Christoph said.

“I am indeed glad it finally happened,” he added.

The concert was arranged by Goethe Institut in Lahore. The Goethe-Institut is a non-profit German cultural association operational worldwide with 159 institutes, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and relations.

In Pakistan, the institute has offices in Lahore and Karachi but not in Islamabad.

“It was a special treat to have them in the capital for a concert,” said a German woman at Kuch Khaas.

Published in Dawn February 1st, 2015

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