KARACHI: It was a little unusually nippy for the first week of March. The beautiful Frere Hall gardens were dimly lit but the warm light emanating from some extraordinary musicians’ melodious performances on the first day of the 17th All Pakistan Music Conference (APMC) on Friday made one feel super optimistic about the future of classical music in the country.

To elucidate: the concert kicked off with a young boy, Izzat Fateh Ali Khan, son of Ustad Fateh Ali Khan of Gwalior gharana, belting out a raga that needs months and months to learn and perform — raga Puriya Dhanashri. It is not an easy composition of notes to present because of the seamless movements between mid and high octaves. The child artist, whose voice pitch will definitely go higher with age, did pretty well to impress the audience.

Next up was the brilliant young sarangi player Gul Mohammad. He is now a known name in circles where music is both enjoyed and understood. One of the three announcers said that the raga he’s going to play was Shudh Bhairvi. He played it with a lot of heart, as he always does.

Next up was a young vocalist Imran Ilyas. After listening to him on Friday one can safely claim that he has improved tremendously over the years. There was more control over the sur and his understanding of microtones seems to have increased a great deal. His rendition of raga Madhu Kauns (not Madhu Kans as someone said) was engaging. Again, like the young man he followed, Ilyas gets immersed in his art on stage, which is the right way to convey the subtleties of Eastern classical music to audiences.

Speaking of command over sur, le and taal, one has to mention Labraiz Afzal and Ali Hafeez of Talwandi gharana who sang in dhrupad. They should be invited more often to such events. The youngsters can learn a lot from them.

The penultimate artist of the evening was another young man Turab Ali (sitar player). He presented raga Aiman. Since he performs in the gayeki ang, and does it very well, he has acquired popularity in a reasonably quick time. It’s so nice to see the artistry associated with the sitar still winning hearts of so many of us.

The last performer on the programme’s list was none other than Ustad Fateh Ali Khan.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2020