Sangat brings two worlds together

Karachi 

The United States Consul General in Karachi, Brian Heath, welcomed 350 music lovers to a concert featuring ‘Sangat’ – an ensemble of musicians from the University of Texas (UT) Austin and National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) – held at a hotel on Thursday evening.

The concert showcased the success of a three-year university partnership between the two schools, supported by a Rs100 million US government grant.  Kamran Ali, director of the South Asia Institute at UT and Arshad Mehmood, Napa’s director of programmes, also attended.

“The university partnership highlights our efforts to develop musical talent in Pakistan, while building people-to-people ties between our two nations,” said Consul General Heath. “This performance shows the power of music and culture to bring people together.”

The US Mission to Pakistan has 20 university partnerships in Pakistan, said Heath. “In Sindh alone, we have sponsored four over the past three years and, as with the UT-Napa partnership, each is a Rs100 million grant.”  

“Our partnerships are just one part of the work we are doing to support higher education in Pakistan,” said Heath. “We know that a nation’s youth is its future, and we want to ensure that Pakistani students have access to the tools they need to fully realise their potential and to contribute to a strong, stable, and prosperous Pakistan.”