KARACHI: As a sunny Sunday turned into a cool breezy afternoon and evening, a tastefully sophisticated audience slowly trickled on to the Frere Hall Gardens to enjoy and appreciate great music on the concluding sessions of the two-day 20th All Pakistan Music Conference.

The carpets on the grass as well as covering the base of big shady trees and over takhts with the pillows and cushions as well as chairs ensured that everyone remained comfortable right till the end of the programme, which continued till the early hours of Monday.

The first session on the concluding day was also witness to how music is passed down through the generations. From father to son, from teacher to disciple. The sweet voice of a girl made everyone focus and blink hard several times as one failed to find the young lady supposedly singing on the stage. Instead there was a young lad with cherubic cheeks there delivering Khyal on raga Bhimpalasi.

He was Izat Fateh Ali Khan, the young son of Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, a sixth generation protégé of the Gwalior gharana or school of music. He started his training at the age of seven. Even now he didn’t look much older than 11 or 12.

It was great that the knowledgeable hosts and moderators for the sessions, namely Shai Qazi, Khurram Sohail and Rizwan Zaidi, were there to fill you in with the details about each performance and the performers. They were helping anyone with even little knowledge of music, instruments, vocals and dance, understand the performances better and enjoy them thoroughly.

20th All Pakistan Music Conference concludes

As Izat Fateh Ali Khan was wrapping up his performance, another youngster carrying a black guitar case made his way towards the stage. But as he took his place up there, one realised that he didn’t have a guitar with him but a sarod inside the guitar case.

He was the young Muzammil Akmal Qadri, who started playing musical instruments with the guitar at age 10 but has now moved on to playing the sarod. He is said to be one of the only few sarod performers in Pakistan, as explained by the moderators, as instrumental artistes in the country are very rare now.

Muzammil was supported on the stage by his own father Akmal Qadri on the harmonium and by the President’s Pride of Performance winner Ustad Shabbir Hussain (Jhari) playing the tabla.

Next up, two brothers, also hailing from the Gwalior school of music, Dr Zulfiqar Ali and Mazhar Hussain, also performed the Multani raga with Ali Hasan on the tabla, Wajid Ali on the tanpura and Mian Hamza Hussain on the harmonium. The brothers stood out on the stage due to wearing identical deep sea green kurtas with red scarves hanging loosely around their necks. “The colour of our kurtas are a mix of blue and green that produces the Multani colour,” said the older of the brothers who happens to hold a PhD degree.

There was another performance of the Khyal by Imran Abbas, who explained that Khyal has its roots in the Gwalior school of music, which also happens to be one of the oldest gharana of classical music in India during the reign of the Mughals.

Other performances included one by Ustad Naseeruddin Sami, Salman Haider, Muslim Shaggan and Ustad Fateh Ali Khan who presented the Khyal, Akmal Qadri who played the flute, Ustab Ashraf Sharif Khan who played the sitar and a dance performance by a dancing troupe from the Pakistan National Council of Arts.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2023