David Dalle
Thursday October 24th, 2024 with David Dalle
Ustad Shafqat Ali Khan in Ottawa! Mushfiq Hashimi joins me to talk about Shafqat's concert and his time performing with him in Pakistan.

The great Ustad Salamat Ali Khan was one of the most prominent classical singers of the subcontinent and head of the Sham Chaurasia gharana. This family lineage of Dhrupad and Khyal stretches back to singing at the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar in the 16th century. This gharana was one of the most important in the Punjab over the past few centuries, and the family settled in Lahore, Pakistan, after partition. Salamat Ali Khan and his older brother Nazakat Ali Khan were the torchbearers for the 2nd half of the 20th century. They were among the first Pakistani singers to perform in India in 1953 at a concert attended by the first Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The first album of Indian classical singing I heard was also from Salamat and Nazakat Ali Khan. The elder brother Nazakat died in 1984, but Salamat trained two of his sons, Sharafat and Shafqat, in the tradition and continued to perform with them until his death in 2001. Sharafat Ali Khan died young in 2009, and the gharana is now led by the youngest son, Shafqat Ali Khan, who has also trained his sons. They have remained some of my favourite classical singers, but I have never seen any of them perform live, until now. Shafqat Ali Khan and his sons will be appearing in Ottawa this Sunday evening for an intimate concert at the Mushfiq Arts Center! (tickets, which include dinner preceding the concert, are available only by calling 613-862-8856). Mushfiq Hashimi, the extroardinarly multi-talented singer, instrumentalist, and calligrapher, who has made Ottawa his home for over the past 20 years, teaching and sharing his mastery at the Mushfiq Arts Center, joins me to discuss the concert as well as his time performing with Salamat Ali Khan and sons in Pakistan. https://www.mushfiqarts.com/