A Celebration of the Poetry and Music of Pakistan in Paris

A Celebration of the Poetry and Music of Pakistan in Paris

Co-presented by Théatre de la Ville and the Aga Khan Music Initiative

Paris, 7 October 2011 -- The Aga Khan Music Initiative and Théatre de la Ville team continue their three-year partnership with a two-day celebration of Pakistani music and poetry at the Théatre de la Ville in Paris on the 8th and 9th of October 2011.

The weekend, featuring 20 Baluchi, Sindhi and Pashtun musicians and poets, will begin with readings of the folk stories and popular poetry of the nomads of Baluchistan. Sindhi master of the double flute Akbar Khamisu Khan will be accompanied on dholak by Mohamed Khan. Baluchi musicians include Mohammad Bashir and the singer Nawab Khan. Zarsanga, the queen of Pushtun music, will recite love poems called landays and other nomadic kuchi songs accompanied by her son Shahzad on tabla and Muhabat Khan on rubab. On 9 October, the vibrant Sufi poetry tradition will be explored. Through music and stories, the programme will highlight Sufi poetry’s function as a means of invoking and connecting with the transcendent. A special focus will be on the Qawwali tradition inspired by Hazrat Amir Khusraw and made famous by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan at a Théatre de la Ville concert in 1985.

A full programme is available at: http://www.theatredelaville-paris.com/

The Aga Khan Music Initiative (www.akdn.org/music) is a nine-country music and arts education programme, with a worldwide performance and production activities. Launched in 2000 by His Highness the Aga Khan to support talented musicians and music educators who are striving to preserve, transmit, and further develop their musical heritage in contemporary forms, the Music Initiative began its work in Central Asia, eventually expanding to include musicians and artistic communities from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Since its inception, the Initiative has helped musicians, music educators and grassroots cultural strategists to recast musical traditions of the Silk Route in contemporary forms and contexts rooted in local cultural heritage.