Saira Peter: Her velvety voice is her greatest asset

The ambience of music was so very evident from the moment we entered her parents’ Defence residence. As we stepped in, the first thing we saw was a glossy upright piano in the hallway, and as we stepped into the drawing room there again was a grand piano. After a wait of a couple of minutes in a tastefully decorated drawing room, in walked a poised, charming young lady.

She was none other than Saira Peter, a singing sensation, a person who has done her country proud by being the first Pakistani opera singer in the UK. 

On her latest visit to her homeland, she has been giving concerts in Karachi and Islamabad. Her recent performance in Karachi really took the city and music fans by storm. What was most striking was her versatility. She performed operatic pieces by Handel and Mozart at one end of the spectrum, and Noor Jehan’s Punjabi film hit of the 70s, “Sayion Ni Mera Mahi”, at the other. The only thing common to both these widely differing genres of music was perfection.

As we got down to talking about her meteoric rise to fame, Saira said that she had been in the world of music for the last 16 years.

When asked as to what it really was that so endeared her to the world of music, she said, “I had been into it since childhood as I was a member of my church choir. I had an inborn inclination to and love for music.”

Saira told me that she did her MSc in Chemistry from the University of Karachi and then went over to London for further studies where, after obtaining a Master’s in history from Queen Mary’s University, she made the change-over to music from the mundane world of chemicals and chemical equations.

Presently, she also teaches at the NJA (Noor Jehan) Arts, an organisation which specialises in Sufi music. It has been there since 1998. She is a director of the institute.

In November 2016, she had this genre of Sufi music introduced in Pakistan through a concert at Hotel Pearl-Continental, Karachi. She also happens to be the founder of the Sufi Opera.

She said that she was being coached by Paul Knight, a globally acknowledged figure in classical music and a disciple of the late British composer, Benjamin Britten.

She specialises in the musical version of Sindhi Sufi saint Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai’s poetry. 

She presented me with her first album, titled ‘Resplendent’, which had been composed under the guidance of Paul Knight. She also has another album on the way, titled ‘Absolute Magic’, arranged by Tawfiq Qureshi, a Bollywood percussionist, with Sarangi maestro Ustad Sabir.

She said that her first album on Soofian Kalam was made in 2005, but for some reason it was never released.

In a somewhat philosophical tone, Saira says, “I wanted to do something for mankind through music.” Going by her recent performances in Karachi and Islamabad, one would surely come to the conclusion that she’s been really successful in realising that dream of hers.

Only last year, she gave a performance at the Mohatta Palace on the occasion of the celebration of Sindhi culture and arts and rendered the English translation of Shah Latif’s verse in her mellifluous Mezzo-Soprano, with piano accompaniment by Stephen Smith, which just left the audience spellbound.

She says, “Our main purpose should be the preservation of our historical and cultural heritage through music.” When asked as to what she thought about the latest innovations in music and modern music as such, she was more or less non-committal, as if to signal her disapproval of it.

Despite having stayed amid the posh and cosmopolitan environs of London for the last many years now, she has a deep attachment to Pakistan and says that she is really satisfied that she has been able to do her homeland proud.