Aga Khan Music Programme and Hong Kong’s Asia+ Festival present East Asian premiere of Canvas of Sound

In collaboration with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong SAR Government, AKMP brings its original commission uniting live calligraphy and music to Hong Kong for a residency featuring performances, an exhibition, a cross-cultural workshop with a Hong Kong master, free public outreach and a bilingual online educational series.

Geneva, Switzerland, 8 October 2026 - The Aga Khan Music Programme (AKMP) brings Canvas of Sound to Hong Kong this month in a multi-part residency that marks the work’s East Asian premiere. Part of Asia+ Festival 2026 – presented by the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau and organised by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department – the residency features two performances, an exhibition of the canvases created live, a cross-cultural workshop with a Hong Kong master, a free public performance, a pre-festival salon and an online educational series with English and Chinese subtitles.

Commissioned, conceived and curated by AKMP, Canvas of Sound brings together Pakistani-Canadian visual artist Tazeen Qayyum and Aga Khan Master Musicians Feras Charestan (qanun) and Basel Rajoub (saxophone, duclar and percussion). Qayyum draws in Urdu, Arabic and Persian, three languages joined by a shared calligraphic tradition; Charestan and Rajoub play in musical modes that have travelled across the same geographies for centuries. Neither art form illustrates the other. Drawing and music are made together, in front of the audience – once, and never repeated.

At Sai Wan Ho Civic Centre on 23 and 24 October, Qayyum will create large-scale calligraphic works around four universal values – amal (hope), karam (kindness), adl (justice) and silm (peace) – as Charestan and Rajoub respond in a musical language drawn from Middle Eastern traditions, contemporary composition, improvisation and jazz, with live projection by filmmaker and artist Carlos Casas.

Each performance creates an entirely new artwork. The finished canvases go on show at the Canvas Display on 24 and 25 October, with both original works displayed side by side on the final day.

Fairouz Nishanova, Director of the Aga Khan Music Programme, said: “Canvas of Sound began with a question: what happens when musicians and a visual artist create in the same moment, before the same audience, each shaping the other’s work without illustrating it? The four words at its heart – hope, kindness, justice and peace – are not a theme laid over the performance. They are practised within it, through listening, patience and trust. In Hong Kong, the work meets a new tradition, and a new public invited to draw alongside the artists.”

A residency in the city

At the heart of the residency is a new collaboration with Tam Po-shek, the Hong Kong dongxiao virtuoso and maker, calligrapher and painter. Developed through months of artistic research and exchange, it asks what new forms and meanings can emerge when Urdu and Chinese calligraphic traditions meet.

On 25 October, Tam joins the artists to lead Draw Your Canvas, a participatory workshop in English and Cantonese. Participants respond to live music through calligraphy and drawing, creating a collective artwork that reflects ideas of belonging, diversity and shared experience.

The same afternoon, a free outreach performance at Central Market brings Canvas of Sound into the heart of the city. The residency opens earlier in the month with a World Music Salon Series event at the Hong Kong Space Museum on 4 October, introducing audiences to Middle Eastern musical traditions.

Learning online

Alongside the live programme, AKMP has created a three-part online educational series for Asia+ Festival, carrying the residency to learners and audiences beyond the venues. In three short films, it introduces the Middle Eastern musical traditions behind the work, the visual art and calligraphy of Tazeen Qayyum, and – in a final episode released after the residency – the collaboration with Hong Kong artists. The first two episodes are now available here.

From Doha to Edinburgh to Hong Kong

Canvas of Sound premiered in gallery form at the National Museum of Qatar in 2024 and was presented on stage at the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival, where The Scotsman awarded it four stars, praising the musicians’ “playful and pacey” interplay. Critics have described the work as “mesmerising” and “a gold standard guarantee of performance”.

The Hong Kong residency deepens AKMP's growing relationship with China. In autumn 2024 the Aga Khan Master Musicians, with pipa virtuoso Wu Man, made their inaugural tour of the country, performing in Shenzhen, Beijing, Urumqi and Hong Kong; films of the concerts drew more than a million views on Chinese social media. Two of those musicians, Basel Rajoub and Feras Charestan, now return to Hong Kong for Canvas of Sound. For more than 25 years the Programme, part of the Aga Khan Development Network, has worked with musicians across Central and South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and China. Its presence at Asia+ Festival 2026, which brings more than 100 performances and arts events from over 30 countries and regions to Hong Kong under the theme "Traditions Recast", reflects a conviction shared with its partners in China: that people-to-people cultural exchange is among the most lasting forms of dialogue.

Nishanova added: "Two years ago, audiences in Shenzhen, Beijing, Urumqi and Hong Kong welcomed the Aga Khan Master Musicians with extraordinary warmth, and we have wanted to return ever since. We are immensely grateful to the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau and the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong SAR Government for giving Canvas of Sound such a remarkable platform, and to all our hosts and partners in China who have made this growing exchange possible. Hong Kong is a city where cultures converge, and it is a privilege to add these voices – and these hands – to that conversation."

Event Information

Canvas of Sound
An Aga Khan Music Programme residency at Asia+ Festival 2026

World Music Salon Series: Middle Eastern Music
4 October 2026
Hong Kong Space Museum

Performances
23-24 October 2026, 8pm
Theatre, Sai Wan Ho Civic Centre
Tickets: URBTIX

Canvas Display
24-25 October 2026
Cultural Activities Hall, Sai Wan Ho Civic Centre

Draw Your Canvas Workshop (English and Cantonese)
25 October 2026, 11.30am
Cultural Activities Hall, Sai Wan Ho Civic Centre

Free Outreach Performance
25 October 2026, 4pm
Central Market

Canvas of Sound Educational Series


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About Asia+ Festival 2026

Now in its fourth edition, Asia+ Festival is presented by the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau and organised by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. Running from September to November 2026 under the theme “Traditions Recast”, it brings more than 100 performances and related arts events from over 30 countries and regions to Hong Kong, supporting the city’s development as an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange.

About the Aga Khan Music Programme

The Aga Khan Music Programme (AKMP), founded in 2000 by Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, affirms the vital role of music and musicians in societies enriched by Islamic cultures and traditions. It celebrates music as a vessel of spirituality and a force for tolerance, curiosity and pluralism, nurturing young people’s imaginations and opening new pathways for creative livelihoods in music and the arts. The Programme works with artists across Central Asia, the Middle East, North and West Africa, South Asia, China and Europe, creating shared spaces where diverse musical languages meet and inspire one another. Honouring traditional teaching and performance while championing contemporary, tradition-inspired work, AKMP’s activities span education, performance, production, new music commissioning and mentoring, and the Aga Khan Music Awards, reaching audiences worldwide.