13th Tehzeeb Festival all set to be held at NAPA.

Tehzeeb Foundation of Pakistan in collaboration with the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) and Getz Pharma is holding 13^th Tehzeeb Festival from 05^th November 2022 till 06^th November 2022 at Zia Mohyeddin Auditorium, NAPA.

This festival aims at celebrating South Asian legacy through classical, folk and sufi music. IT will be featuring eminent artists from Pakistan, India, United Kingdom (UK), United States of America (USA) and other parts of the world.

The festival includes live performances as well as some pre-recorded recitals. The recordings are all exclusive and will be screened for the first time. Live performance feature some of the leading torch-bearers of classical music in Pakistan.

Some of the participants are;

S No	Name of Artist	Medium	Country
01	Saphwat Simab	Rubab	Afghanistan
02	Ashraf Sharif Khan	Sitar	Germany
03	Shahbaz Hussain	Tabla	United Kingdom (UK)
04	Pandit Nirmalya Dey	Dhrupad Gayeki	India
05	Vidya Shah	Thumri Ghazal	India
06	Aizaz Sohail	Classical Gayeki	Pakistan
07	Imran Ilyas Khan	Classical Gayeki	Pakistan
08	Imran Abbas Khan	Classical Gayeki	Pakistan
09	Ustad Mumtaz Sabzal	Banjo	Pakistan
10	Ustad Fateh Ali Khan	Classical Gayeki	Pakistan

The hallmark of this year’s festival will be a classical dance performance by Tehreema Mitha, who is visiting Pakistan from USA.

Sharing some insights about this festival, Sharif Awan, Director, Tehzeeb Festival said; “Tehzeeb Festival is now in its 14^th year and this year we are planning to organize 13^th Tehzeeb Festival and 3^rd one at NAPA. This festival will be a two-day affair, which was earlier scheduled to be held three months earlier, but due to consistent rains all over Pakistan this festival was delayed”.

We added; “like all previous editions, this 13^th Edition of Tehzeeb Festival will be a success too”.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NAPA, Junaid Zuberi also shared his views and he said; “prime objective of NAPA is to train and educate our students about music and traditional arts. On music side we are training / educating our students on classical-music, folk-music and sufi-music, whereas on the traditional side, we are focusing on theatre-art”.

Book Launch – Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi hosts launch of ‘101 Melody Makers’ by renowned author Sultan Arshad Khan.

The Arts Council of Pakistan (ACP) Karachi hosted the launch of the book ‘101 Melody Makers’ by Sultan Arshad Khan at Auditorium-II, Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi on Friday 12^th November 2021. This book is based on the services of music-teachers, music-composers and instrumentalists from Sub-Continent.  This book-launch, which has foreword by legendary Zia Mohyeddin and author’s introductory note by famous Indian lyricist, poet, author and screen-writer Gulzar by was attended in large numbers number of members of literary-circle, members of music-fraternity, celebrities, socialites and selected members of press.

Launch-Event was hosted by Dr. Huma Mir and apart from President ACP Karachi, Muhammad Ahmad Shah and author of ‘101 Melody Makers’, Sultan Arshad Khan, other distinguished speakers of the evening were leading intellectual and writer Javed Jabbar, President Hum Network Sultana Siddiqui, Arshad Mahmood, S M Shahid and seasoned actress Bushra Ansari.

Talking about Sultan Arshad’s book, President Arts Council Muhammad Ahmad Shah said that; “the author spent 14 years preparing for this book. There are many books on wars in the libraries, but unfortunately, they are not many on the arts & music. I congratulate Sultan Arshad Kahn for bring out this book and writing on the creators of melodies”. President ACP is also expressed his desire to have this book published in Urdu and also consented on covering all the expenses for its Urdu translation, which he hoped could reach to as many as people as possible.

Expressing his views, intellectual and writer Javed Jabbar said that; “the Arts Council under the leadership of Ahmad Shah has changed for betterment in past few years, the Arts Council is gaining tremendous progress. This book by Sultan Arshad Khan is a complete encyclopedia, people don’t remember melody-makers who create music, the song is not only complete with its singer other members are as essential as the singer and this includes its director, producer, musicians, cinematographer, light-man, instrument and many others. A song gets accomplished by the co-operation of these people. Sultan Arshad Khan has narrated stories of these 101 melodic-composers created this incredible melody book”.

President Hum Network Sultana Siddiqui shared her views by thanking President ACP Ahmad Shah, she said; “Ahmad Shah promotes and serves art and culture whole heartedly. He has also offered to translate the book in Urdu. Whoever will read this book, will get lost in it. Sultan Arshad Khan has done great work on this book. Just like selfless love for children, Sultan Arshad Khan has the same love for music and musicians”.

Arshad Mahmood while expressing his views said; “there is no need to look at this book because it is more like a movie, Sultan Arshad is also a great-researcher, if I associate the name of a composer with someone else’s song in front of him he immediately corrects it”.

Seasoned actress Bushra Ansari said that; “we do not have any record or history of music, there are very few people who are working to preserve this beautiful art, these are the people who fall in love with music and Sultan Arshad Khan is one of them, he has done a great job by writing this book”.

The author of the book Sultan Arshad Khan paying gratitude on this occasion said; “I am grateful to the speakers who expressed their views on my book. Everyone remembers the singer’s name but no one remembers the composers and instrumentalists who create the melody. I have tried bring out their names so that they can be remembered as well”.

The program concluded with excellent musical performances covering Eastern Classical Music of Sub- Continent.

Zia Mohyeddin continues to inspire, educate and entertain literary circles.

Yesterday I felt very privileged to attend the ‘One Man Show by Zia Mohyeddin’, which was arranged by Kopykat Studios under the patronage of young and energetic Dawar Mehmood. Venue of this event ‘One Man Show by Zia Mohyeddin’ was Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi.

Coming back to the legend himself ‘Zia Mohyeddin’, who even at the age of 86 continues to inspire, educate and entertain literary circles with his excellent story-telling art. His legendary status seems to grow by every passing day and even today his solo shows as hugely popular as was his “The Zia Mohyeddin Show”, which was around 50 years back. Although he hasn’t acted in any television play or any theatre play since long, which gives-in a notion that he now prefers story-telling over acting.

Zia Mohyeddin has raised the bar of story-telling to a level which now seems impossible for others to break into. No-one comes anywhere near to level which is now attained by this legendary artist Zia Mohyeddin.  In today’s time many are venturing into this comparatively new segment of theatre known as story-telling, but not many are as popular as he is in this particular field of theatre. Today many public speakers and story-tellers see him as an inspiration and a role model.

This show ‘One Man Show by Zia Mohyeddin’ had everything what you would expect from this legendary artist. From his excellent & crisp dialogue delivery and that too in perfect urdu accent coupled with choicest selection of vocabulary was a treat in-itself.

‘One Man Show by Zia Mohyeddin’ was witnessed by a full house at Arts Council Auditorium and many were turned away due to shortage of space within the Auditorium. All present at the show gave a well deserved standing ovation on conclusion of this event.