Tehzeeb Festival to bring musicians together

KARACHI: The Tehzeeb Foundation will be organising its annual music festival this December in Karachi at the Arts Council Auditorium.

The couple behind the foundation — Sharif and Malahat Awan — addressed a press briefing at Koel Cafe on Wednesday afternoon.

The one-day event, set to take place on December 5, will have participants from all over Pakistan including Pride of Performance recipient sitar nawaz Ustad Rais Khan along with his son Farhan Khan, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan of the Gawalior gharana, Ustad Naseeruddin Sami, Fariha Pervez and sarod nawaz Asad Qizilbash.

The event will also feature Indian veena player and Grammy Award winner Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.

The Awans were formerly associated with the All Pakistan Music Conference for 15 years until three years ago when they “branched out and created Tehzeeb Foundation out of a passion for classical music and the  fine arts.”

Malahat Awan, who is the president of Tehzeeb Foundation, said, “We want to introduce the decorum of listening to classical music, something we have seen in performances held in India and the United Kingdom. Our objective remains the preservation of classical music and fine arts in Pakistan. For the past three years, Tehzeeb Foundation has been busy doing that. This is our second annual festival. Last year we held the very first Tehzeeb Festival at the Hindu Gymkhana.”

“This event is going to be a treat for listeners of classical music and will be tiresome for those who don’t appreciate it,” said Malahat.

“We love the art and the artistes, hence this initiative.”

The general secretary of the foundation Sharif Awan said, “This is an event in which we want to bring quality music for the listeners of classical music. We see that old performers are fading out and we want to preserve their music.”

Sharif said that since the foundation’s inception, they have also worked on archiving music and have recorded Ustad Rais Khan’s music.

According to him, “While pop music is a very exportable commodity of Pakistan, classical music is not even exposed abroad.”

As a part of its future projects, Tehzeeb Foundation plans to announce Tehzeeb Awards in the categories of classical music of the subcontinent, folk music of Pakistan, as well as awards for Urdu poetry, Urdu prose and for fine arts.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2010.