KARACHI, April 30: A two-day sitar festival will get under way on May 5 at the Arts Council Karachi auditorium.This was announced by the organiser of the event, Tehzeeb Foundation, at a local café on Saturday.

The annual Tehzeeb awards will also be given away during the festival.

Talking to the media, the foundation’s Malahat Awan said: “The idea is to explore the possibilities that can be experimented with an instrument like sitar. There’s jugalbandi, there’s fusion and there’s experimentation within the classical mould. This is precisely the reason that you will see at the festival a noted guitarist Amir Zaki indulging in a bit of fusion music with the sitar player Farhan Khan (son of Ustad Rais Khan).”

The sitar players that will take part in the festival include Suhel Rais from India, Huzoor Hasnani Khan (both sons of Ustad Rais Khan), Ashraf Sharif Khan, Sajid Hussain, Rakae Jamil and Ustad Rais Khan himself. Ustad Bashir Khan and Shahbaz Husain Khan (who resides in the UK) will play the tabla.

The Tahzeeb Awards will be given away in five categories to the following distinguished individuals. Zehra Nigah (poetry), Salima Hashmi (fine art), Javed and Babar Niazi (folk), Asad Muhammad Khan (prose) and Ustad Rais Khan (classical music).