Just as Diwali was round the corner, India got news that threw fresh light on its northern region’s festively hybrid heritage. An Afghanistan rabab master is among the seven winners of the 2022 Aga Khan Music Awards. The eponymous Geneva-based foundation chose to honour Kabul-born Daud Khan Sadozai for his “exceptional creativity, promise and enterprise” against a traditional background. The artistes share a $500,000 prize fund for the triennial recognition which the jury announced from 400 nominations worldwide, with a focus on societies with significant Islamic presence.

Read the article at www.tribuneindia.com

Geneva, Switzerland, 6 October 2022 – Laureates of the 2022 Aga Khan Music Awards were named today. The triennial Awards, established by His Highness the Aga Khan in 2018, recognise exceptional creativity, promise and enterprise in music in societies across the world in which Muslims have a significant presence.

The Aga Khan Music Awards reflect the conviction of His Highness the Aga Khan, 49th hereditary Imam of the Ismaili Muslims, that music can serve as a cultural anchor, deepening a sense of community, identity and heritage, while simultaneously reaching out in powerful ways to people of different backgrounds. In naming the laureates, the Awards Master Jury expressed its desire to support as many outstanding nominees as possible from the geographically and culturally diverse pool of close to 400 nominations in a time of urgent need for musicians and music educators. While contributing to the preservation and ongoing development of musical heritage, many of the laureates draw on the power of music to raise awareness about social and environmental issues.

Laureates of the Aga Khan Music Awards will be celebrated at a ceremony and series of affiliated events in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, organised in conjunction with the Aga Khan Award for Architecture on 29-31 October 2022.

Daud Khan conjures all these sounds from his rabab. His face looks like an angel midwiving the birth of sounds. Together the two musicians’ sounds mingle and resonate as in the best jazz ensembles.

Read the full review by David Chaffetz of the concert given at the Museu do Oriente in Lisbon on the 4th of February 2022 here : What is the future of Afghan music? Daud Khan Sadozai plays at the Fundacão Oriente, Lisbon

Read the full review on www.nytimes.com

“Music has always diminshed distances. The land can be divided but not the music. You go anywhere in the world, you will get the same seven notes that constitute the world of music, whether it is Indian music or Chinese, Japanese or Western.”

Ustad Amjad Ali Khan

The review of The Hindu can be read at https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/music/coexisting-in-harmony/article17407461.ece