From museum glass to global stages, Aga Khan Master Musicians bring ancient musical treasures back to life

It’s a sweltering Spring afternoon in Paris, and the Aga Khan Master Musicians are hard at work in the darkened basement theatre at Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, the city’s indigenous art museum.  Oud strings melted into saxophone improvisations as the orchestra rehearsed for its concert, a duo of sold-out performances that took place over a weekend in April. The show is also anticipated at the Edinburgh International Festival on 22 August.  The Aga Khan Music Programme (AKMP), a cultural preservation initiative launched in 2000 by the Aga Khan IV and his brother, Prince Amyn Muhammad, was established to identify leading musicians in Central Asia to promote the prestige of the art form on the global stage and train young apprentices in the traditional instruments of their nation. “There are very few Muslim leaders worldwide that would openly say, ‘I support music and musical creation. I will fund it to the [point] where others recognise its necessity,’” explained Fairouz Nishanova, AKMP director. There are several Master Musicians in the orchestra’s rotation, and audiences can expect any combination of them in a performance.