PESHAWAR: The School of Funkaar has launched its ‘season two’ to encourage local folk artists, musicians and performers, who have neither access to mainstream media nor have a public exposure.

A large number of artists, composers and music buffs attended the event. The new facility would encourage budding folk artists along with senior music maestros to counter militancy through the force of local symphonies.

The School of Funkaar, a private initiative, is a state-of-the-art facility where budding artists, folk singers and musicians can display their talent using fusion of conventional and modern music gadgets.

The school has been set up by a group of youth of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa set up in Peshawar to uplift the emerging artists, musicians and vocalists and combat extremism through folk music. Preserving conventional symphonies alongside emerging talent is the main theme of the community initiative.

Founders want to counter militancy through local symphonies

Noman Alizai, the founder of the startup, while opening season two, said that after graduation in computer science, he and his colleague Sharoon Bhatti planned a community initiative that should work for uplifting local artists and musicians. The initiative was self-sponsored and needed funds to make it a success, he added.

He said that the first response was lukewarm but after some time, local artists and music buffs responded as their online index rose up significantly owing to the quality and substance and eventually School of Funkaar earned a separate music chart.

Since its maiden launch in August last year, the number of budding artists and vocalists grew and the season two attracted more than 12 artists including Bilawal Sayed, Gulwareen Bacha, Sajjad Khan, Yumsa Noor, Sitara Younas, Obaid Khan and Qazi Saqib, who performed well.

Haris Shinwari, a member of the group, said that the main feature of the initiative was linguistic diversity blended in medley of folk music.

“All local music genres from pop, light ghazal, instrumental, folk modern to classical and Qawwali with conventional orchestra in fusion with modern electronic music tools with the spirit of reviving all kinds of symphonies are included in the upcoming season,” said Mr Alizai.

Sharoon Bhatti said that the initiative was launched keeping in view the prevailing conditions where budding artists had no facility to market their music items nor they had access to mainstream media. He added that the School of Funkaar offered such music enthusiasts to come up with a new idea and benefit from free of cost studio facility.

Later, the budding folk artists performed and garnered appreciation from the audience.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2023