LAHORE: The Lahore Arts Council (LAC) has decided to form a group of instrumentalists to perform on various occasions and official functions. The council will also hold an instrumental music festival, first of its kind, in September with an aim to encourage artistes who play instruments such as Sarangi, Sitar and flute.

“It is evident that there is lack of patronage for instrumental music, state television and radio used to hold classical music programmes in the past but this has stopped for many years. Now the council is thinking to revive this tradition by not only forming a group of instrumentalists but also holding frequent instrumental music festivals,” said Zulfiqar Ali Zulfi, the director Art and Culture of the LAC, while talking to Dawn.

Mr Zulfi said the council was holding regular classes of traditional music instruments while the instrumental music festivals would now be a permanent part of the council’s cultural calendar. He said the group names would be announced in September and a meeting of the LAC officials in this regard would be held in the last week of August.

Mentioning Sarangi, he said, very few Sarangi players were left in Pakistan and the instrument was almost a dying. “The festival will highlight all such dying music instruments,” he added.

The instrumentalists teaching music at Alhamra Academy of Performing Arts said that Sarangi trend was on the decline because this music instrument was difficult to learn and needed great dedication and time. They were of the view that the government should hold instrumental music festivals based on fusion music frequently while there should be instrumental music concerts at colleges and universities to make the traditional music popular among the masses.

Naushad Ali, a flute player, considered is the most affordable instrument.

“An average flute could be bought for Rs500 to Rs600. Flute is thousands of year old instrument and a traditional instrument of this region but there are very few chances for a flutist to perform frequently in front of the public as compared to s singer,” he said.

To many instrumentalists, there is a great need for holding instrumental music festivals and performances on radio and television stations. They termed the forming of a group of music instrumentalists a welcome gesture for promotion of instrumental music.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2021