Recipients of music awards honoured

Islamabad : Folk singers Zarsanga of the Pashto language and Sain Zahoor of the Punjabi language were honoured as the recipients of the Aga Khan Music Awards, 2022, during 'Sarangi Night' at the Serena Hotel here.

The event was jointly organised by the Serena Hotels and the Aga Khan Trust for Cultural Services, and attended by diplomats, ministers, bureaucrats, and representatives of corporate sector, business community and media houses. Besides Sain Zahoor and Zarsanga, the students of Leif Larson Music Centre, Altit, Gilgit-Baltistan, also performed.

The Leif Larson Music Centre was established in April 2011 at the Altit Fort to train youth in the use of old musical instruments for ensuring the cultural music of Pakistan’s northern belt.

The Aga Khan Music Awards were established in 2018 by His Highness the Aga Khan to recognise and develop exceptional creativity, promise and enterprise in music, and music education in societies across the world, where Muslim communities have a significant presence.

Serena Hotels CEO Aziz Boolani appreciated Queen of Pashto Zarsanga and Punjabi Sufi singer Sain Zahoor for promoting traditional, folk and Sufi music and said the two legendary singers were international representatives of the country’s musical heritage and deserved global recognition. AKCSP CEO Tauseef Ahmed highlighted the vision of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture programmes i.e. the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the Aga Khan Historic Cities Programme, the Aga Khan Music Programme and the Aga Khan Museum. He also shed light on the Aga Khan Music Awards, 2022.

A master jury had selected 15 top performers for the main award from among 400 nominees representing 42 nations. Those award winners shared the prize money of $500,000. The award ceremony was held in October at the Royal Opera House of Musical Arts, Muscat, Oman.