Sufi star enthralls audience at PNCA

Saira Peter performs Beethoven, Noor Jahan

ISLAMABAD: Sufi opera singer Saira Peter enthralled the audience at a musical evening “Sham-e-Musiqi” at Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA).

The Pakistani-origin Londoner after successful concerts in Karachi and Lahore, swayed listeners in Islamabad with a variety of genres ranging from Beethoven to Noor Jahan and got a standing ovation from the audience.

In her brief comments, she said that the love of the people of Pakistan always brought her here to perform and contribute to the musical industry of Pakistan.

She said she was currently working on her second Sufi album on poetry of Hazrat Baba Buleh Shah and Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai.

She also lauded PNCA for promoting arts and culture in the country. She brought the unique genre of Sufi opera to federal capital Islamabad for the third time with her music director Steven Smith. The unique genre of Sufi opera she performs blending together western classical and Sufi poetry.

Saira is also the director of the Noor Jahan Centre in London, which has been promoting Pakistani music and culture in London since 1998.

Having performed across multiple continents, Saira hails from Karachi but lives in London.

Combining eastern and western classical styles in her music her passion is to use her unique vocal accomplishments to bring together people of different faiths and ethnicity, celebrating spiritual values together, in peace.

She has also expressed her desire to set up a music academy for females  in Islamabad on the pattern of her “Sa Music Academy” in Karachi.



Speaking to the media Saira said that her music academy in Karachi was providing training to new female singers, which she exclusively established for them. She said that her aim is to support new talent of female singers as they have limited opportunities especially in the field of music.

She said: “I am only singing with an aim to serve my people in Pakistan and spread the message of Sufi saints across the world.”

She said that it is her mission to promote positive image of the country across the globe. Saira informed that soon her new Sufi musical album “Tu Habib”, comprising poetry of renowned Sufi saint Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai would be released. She said that in her new album songs in different languages of the country including Urdu, Sindhi, Saraiki and Punjabi languages.

She paid a glowing tributes to her teachers for training her in Opera singing, adding that anybody getting training in Opera, can sing in any genre of music. She said that Opera music was spiritual and that’s why it was going to help spread their (Sufis) message across the world.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2017.