By By our correspondent
A select group of Karachiites was treated to an Alaap of the Sitar and its cousin the Sur-Bahaar at the residence of the US Consul-General in Karachi on Monday evening to mark the Daniel Pearl World Music Days.
The Daniel Pearl World Music Days are usually marked on October 10 each year since 2002 in remembrance of the slain US journalist’s birthday which falls on the said date. Soon after the murder of Pearl in Pakistan, his family and friends decided to mark the day with musical concerts in light of the love that the unfortunate Wall Street journalist had for music. The concerts, titled “Harmony for Humanity”, take place all over the world in October entire month and are a bid to remind the world of the power of music to connect people regardless of borders.
The concert in Karachi was held nine days after the birthday of Daniel Pearl, which falls on October 10 with one of the performers reaching Karachi only 38 hours before the performance and putting up a good show after having slept for only three and a half hours.
Dr Brian Q Silver and his Indian wife Shubha Sankaran have been married for 21 years and are both versatile Sitar and Sur-Bahar artistes. Brian studied for nearly 30 years with Ustad Ghulam Hussain Khan, while Sankaran learnt her trade from Ustad Imrat Khan. During the short concert, they played Raag Jhansen Mohini.
Since it was an Alaap, where two performers converse with each other through their instruments, the usual complement of the Sitar, the Tabla, was absent. As the guests sat down for the concert to begin, many bore a puzzled look prompted by the absence of the Tabla. However, when Silver and Sankaran started playing, in their female tone for the Sitar and the deeper, male tone of the Sur-Bahaar respectively, they took the audience on a journey of classical music.
Sankaran played almost entirely in Dhrupat Raag, Dr Silver, though brought a more contemporary touch, starting off in a more Arabic style before slipping gears into the classical Indian and then towards the end of the nearly 20-odd-minute performance delved into a more Persian style of playing. This, Silver later said, he had picked up from an Iranian Sitar player Muhammad Raza Lufti.
At the end of the performance they were greeted to a rapturous response from the audience which included Salamat Ali and Nafees Ahmed, both noted classical musicians of Pakistan, who whole heartedly applauded the skill and mastery of the two performers.