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It fills practitioners and lovers of music with great hope to know that the younger generation, some of them cusp millennials, are taking a keen interest in classical and semi-classical music.

This was evident, one more time, on Saturday evening at an event titled ‘Nautarang’ organised by the All Pakistan Music Conference (APMC) at the Alliance de Francaise, Karachi.

The concert went off to a delightful start when Tanveer Zaheer, student of Ustad Bashir Khan, presented two very popular compositions made famous by artists such as Shafqat Amanat Ali and Sajjad Ali. The first song that Tanveer sang was ‘Khamaj’ whose video, shot by Saqib Malik, complemented the lyrics beautifully. It was so nice to notice that the young man did not over-exert his vocal ability. Although he could have gone for the harkatein that he seems to be capable of, he chose to keep things uncomplicated. As a result, his pitching did not falter and the audience was treated to a fresh, simpler version of the song.

His second offering was the Aftab Muztar ghazal Her zulm tera yaad hai that Sajjad Ali has done complete justice to. Tanveer sang only a couple of verses, perhaps rightly so. Again, it was a nice performance.

Another vocalist, Mustafa Dilpazir, followed Tanveer. He is the shaagird of Ustad Ghulam Shabbir. His first act was Taras khao ay morey prabhu in a raga that he claimed was seldom performed. It was evident that the young man is an avid student of music. Still, Mustafa needs to understand that he should not be too conscious of his stage presence. After all, singing, like all arts, requires an utter and complete submission to the art form. By being too aware of his self he tends to lose focus, which affects his rendition of straighter lines in particular.

That being said, the audience liked his performance as well as his thumri in raga champakali a lot, which was why he was requested to stay on stage for one more item. He obliged and sang a ghazal by Nasir Kazmi, Kya lagey aankh ke phir dil mein samaya koi.

The last artist of the evening was the young tabla player Waqas Gulab, another student of Ustad Bashir Khan. His performance in ‘teentaal’ (16-beat cycle) was quite impressive.

I feel compelled here to mention the name of sarangi player Gul. He accompanied the vocalists and the percussionist on stage and sounded so mellifluous that occasionally overshadowed those who were supposed to be in the limelight.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2018