Aga Khan Music Awards

A practicing artist and Director General of the Culture and Arts Directorate at the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities, Hala Al Khalifa earned a BA in Fine Arts from Tufts University and The Museum School of Fine Arts (USA) and an MA in Fine Arts from the UCL Slade School (UK). In addition to teaching art at the university level and taking part in local, regional and international art exhibitions as both an organiser and participant, she has held various positions in the arts departments of cultural institutions that carried responsibilities related to exhibitions, publications, museum education and the advancement of the artistic landscape within communities. In 2020, Al Khalifa was awarded Italy&rsquo;s Ordine della Stella d&rsquo;Italia in recognition of her efforts to enhance relations between Bahrain and Italy through the promotion of culture and art.

H.E. Shaikha Hala Bint Mohammed Al Khalifa  

Azerbaijani composer and pianist Franghiz Ali-Zadeh has produced a prolific body of classical concert music that draws inspiration from Azerbaijan&rsquo;s venerable musical and literary traditions. A graduate of Baku Conservatory, Ms Ali-Zadeh has long served as a bridge between Baku&rsquo;s musical establishment and leading composers, performers and musical institutions in Europe and North America. Her compositions continue to be performed regularly in Azerbaijan and internationally, including most recently the premiere performances of two large works, NIZAMI Cosmology, by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and Summer Impression, by the Mitteldeutsche Kammerphilharmonie. Ali-Zadeh is a 2019 winner of the Aga Khan Music Award for Music Creation. She has served as Chairman of the Composers' Union of Azerbaijan since 2007, and currently serves as Artistic Director of the Silk Road International Music Festival in Sheki, Azerbaijan.&nbsp;

Franghiz Ali-Zadeh

Divya Bhatia, based in Mumbai, is an independent festival programmer and producer, performing arts consultant and actor. Educated in India, the United Kingdom and Canada, he serves as Artistic Director and Co-Producer of Jodhpur RIFF (Rajasthan International Folk Festival), India&rsquo;s leading folk-jazz-roots music festival in Rajasthan; Artistic Consultant at ComplexCity, a festival in Mumbai produced by Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA); visiting faculty for Applied Theatre at London's Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and India partner for their International Collaborative Outreach programme; and faculty at the South Asia Festivals Academy (British Council). He also regularly presents and produces international music and theatre projects worldwide. He has been a Hindustani classical&nbsp;tabla&nbsp;player and a film actor, including in the 2009 film&nbsp;Paa&nbsp;and the 2015 film&nbsp;Talvar&nbsp;(released internationally as&nbsp;Guilty).

Divya Bhatia

Rachel Cooper is an arts producer, global arts advocate, performing arts curator, festival director and cultural diplomat. Since 1993, she has been affiliated with Asia Society/New York, where she has developed pioneering projects in global arts and culture with a special focus on Asia, including the Muslim Voices: Arts and Ideas Festival and Creative Voices of Muslim Asia. Following undergraduate and graduate studies at UCLA in World Arts and Cultures and Dance Ethnology, Ms Cooper lived in Indonesia for six years, where she pursued her interest in Balinese and Javanese gamelan, shadow puppetry and dance. At Asia Society, she has curated and presented music, performed poetry, theatre, film and intercultural projects representing all parts of Asia, and has been a strong and abiding advocate for international cooperation in facilitating the movement of performing artists across national borders.

Rachel Cooper

Yurdal Tokcan is a Turkish oud player, guitarist and composer who bridges the worlds of classical Ottoman makam, Sufi music and contemporary cosmopolitan musical styles and genres. Born in 1966 and educated at Istanbul Technical University&rsquo;s Turkish Music State Conservatory (T&uuml;rk Musikisi Devlet Konservatuarı), he began his professional career as a member of the Istanbul State Turkish Music Ensemble, founded in 1987 by revered tanbur player Necdet Yaşar under the aegis of Turkey&rsquo;s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. In 2015, Yurdal Tokcan became the ensemble&rsquo;s artistic director. He is known not only for his mastery of the oud, but for his explorations of intercultural composition and performance in the domains of both &ldquo;East-West&rdquo; and &ldquo;East-East&rdquo; collaborations, in particular through his adaptation of oud technique to the fretless guitar. Of his many recordings released in Turkey, several have also been released internationally, most notably Passion (Hisleniş), an album of solo oud improvisations.

Yurdal Tokcan 

Dhafer Youssef is a Tunisian oud player, vocalist and composer known for his visionary explorations of jazz, avant-garde and world music. Youssef has lived in Europe since 1990 and collaborated extensively with notable musicians and artists across the world, including tabla player Zakir Hussain, kora master Ballake Sissoko, Cuban pianist Omar Sosa, Sardinian trumpeter Paolo Fresu, Norwegian guitarist Eivind Aarset and jazz pianist Herbie Hancock. A steady stream of album releases has documented these collaborations as well as his interest in electro-acoustic music, amongst the best known of which are Electric Sufi (2001), Digital Prophecy (2003), Divine Shadows (2005), Abu Nawas Rhapsody (2010), Birds Requiem (2013), Diwan of Beauty and Odd (2016), and Sounds of Mirrors (2018). His contributions to building tolerance through music were recognised in 2006 by a BBC Radio 3 World Music Award. 

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Dhafer Youssef

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