Geneva, Switzerland, 13 May 2025 - The Aga Khan Music Programme is pleased to announce that the Aga Khan Music Awards 2025 will be held from 20 to 23 November in London, UK. Taking the form of a four-day festival of excellence showcasing music from the Great East, the Awards will take place at prominent venues of the EFG London Jazz Festival.

The Aga Khan Music Awards 2025 are held under the patronage of His Highness Prince Rahim Aga Khan V, who brings his guiding vision and stewardship to the Awards as Co-Chair, alongside his uncle, Prince Amyn Aga Khan. This new chapter reflects both continuity and remembrance, honouring the legacy of the Awards’ beloved Founder and Chair, His Late Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, whose deep belief in the power of music to connect, uplift and transcend continues to inspire the Awards’ spirit.

His Highness the Aga Khan said: “I am honoured to carry forward a vision deeply rooted in my father’s belief in the power of music to bridge cultures and uplift the human spirit. The Aga Khan Music Awards reflect values that lie at the heart of the Aga Khan Development Network: pluralism, intercultural dialogue and the spiritual connection that communities around the world find in music. In many of the regions we serve, music is an integral part of daily life, woven into the rhythms of prayer, celebration, memory and identity. We continue to support artists and traditions that speak not only to heritage, but also to hope.”

Prince Amyn Aga Khan said: “The Aga Khan Music Awards continue to fill a unique cultural role, celebrating the full spectrum of music that flourished in the cultures of the Muslim World, while creating new sounds, new music born in part from these traditions and from the discovery of other cultures and traditions. These genres and styles embody music's traditional role as a source of spiritual enlightenment, inspiration and social cohesion at a time when strengthening tolerance and understanding have become a worldwide priority.”

Fairouz Nishanova, Director of the Aga Khan Music Programme, said: “The Aga Khan Music Awards have grown into a community – indeed, a family – built over the past 25 years, and comprising artists, educators, students and communities bound by a shared devotion to preserving and developing musical heritage. As we begin this new chapter, our commitment remains to honouring the traditions that shape us and to ensuring that music remains a living, vital force within the communities we serve.”

The Aga Khan Music Awards 2025 will be held and produced in partnership with the EFG London Jazz Festival. “We are delighted to be able to open the EFG London Jazz Festival’s stages to artists from the Aga Khan Music Awards,” said EFG London Jazz Festival Director Pelin Opcin. “Not only do we share the Awards’ values of dialogue, collaboration and connection, but we also celebrate the deep freedoms and expressivity that are reflected across these very varied and distinctive musical styles.”

The Aga Khan Music Awards honour exceptional achievement across the diverse musical cultures shaped by Islam, spanning performance, composition, education, preservation and devotional practice. Celebrating a rich spectrum of expression – from devotional music and poetry to classical, folk and contemporary forms – the Awards recognise individuals, groups and institutions whose work sustains and reinvents musical traditions while promoting spiritual insight, social cohesion and cultural resilience.

Laureates share a prize fund of $500,000 and gain access to professional opportunities such as commissions, recordings, management contracts and support for educational and preservation initiatives. Aligned with the Aga Khan Music Programme’s broader mission, the Awards advance pluralism, tolerance and global understanding through music.

Fairouz Nishanova added: “It is with great pride and anticipation that we look forward to welcoming the Aga Khan Music Awards to London. It has long been one of the world’s great cultural capitals, a city where traditions from across the globe meet and evolve together. London has also been a vital home for the music from the Great East, welcoming communities from Asia, the Middle East and Africa who have carried their respective heritages into new forms. In this city, diasporic expression has not only preserved tradition, but also transformed it, thereby creating new sounds rooted in memory, movement and belonging.”

The Aga Khan Music Awards were established in 2018 by His Late Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV and his brother, Prince Amyn Aga Khan, as a celebration of musical excellence, creativity, tradition and innovation, aiming to support talent, creation, promise and enterprise. The creation of the Music Awards reaffirmed His Late Highness’s belief that music lived beyond its cultural expression, as a force for dignity, hope, shared humanity and connection across cultures, generations and geographies.

The Awards are governed by an Advisory Council co-chaired by His Highness the Aga Khan and his uncle, Prince Amyn Aga Khan. They are administered by the Aga Khan Music Programme.

The Aga Khan Music Awards are open to all, regardless of religion, race, gender or age: nominees need not be Muslims themselves. Nominations for the 2025 Awards have been open since May 2024, and are judged strictly on merit. An expert panel first selects semi-finalists to be passed on for consideration by the Awards’ Master Jury, composed of eminent performers, composers, festival directors, music scholars and leaders of arts education.

The full programme for the Aga Khan Music Awards 2025 will be released this summer.

Aga Khan Music Programme

Founded in 2000, the Aga Khan Music Programme (AKMP) supports, validates and celebrates the pivotal role of music and musicians in communities where it works and for communities it serves. It collaborates with musicians, ensembles and educators throughout Central and South Asia, the Middle East, North and West Africa. For AKMP, music is an elemental expression of human spirituality, and a crucial means of fostering tolerance, curiosity and pluralism by connecting individuals and communities, and bringing musicians’ work to a global audience. While respecting and supporting communities’ often ancient traditions, AKMP encourages new projects from contemporary artists immersed in those rich heritages, producing music inspired by but not constrained by tradition.

EFG London Jazz Festival

Now in its 33rd year, the EFG London Jazz Festival will take place from 14 to 23 November 2025. Over 10 days and nights, musicians from across the globe will gather in London for an international celebration of music, presenting boundary-pushing performances that illuminate jazz and its influence across genres and cultures. Jazz transcends borders, weaving together diverse musical traditions and uniting communities through the universal language of music.

Aga Khan Development Network

The Aga Khan Development Network is a group of private, non-denominational development agencies, dedicated to improving the quality of life of those in need, mainly in Asia and Africa, irrespective of their origin, faith, or gender. Our multifaceted development approach aims to help communities and individuals become self-reliant.

His Highness the Aga Khan

His Highness Prince Rahim Aga Khan V is the 50th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims and Chair of the Aga Khan Development Network. He is also the Co-Chair of the Aga Khan Music Programme.

Prince Amyn Aga Khan

Prince Amyn is the uncle of His Highness the Aga Khan. He has been active in the leadership of the Aga Khan Development Network for over 50 years and serves as the Co-Chair of the Aga Khan Music Programme. Prince Amyn has always held a deep interest in music, studying piano and then voice, at the New England Conservatory during his time at Harvard, and serving as a juror for various musical awards such as the Premio Venezia, the Vendôme Prize and the Concours de Genève.

His Late Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan

His Late Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV (1936-2025) was the 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims and the Founder of the Aga Khan Development Network. For him, one manifestation of his hereditary responsibilities was a deep engagement with development for more than 60 years. He established the Aga Khan Music Programme in 2000.

Event details

Aga Khan Music Awards 2025
20-23 November 2025
London

In collaboration with the EFG London Jazz Festival