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Edinburgh International Festival celebrates Aga Khan Music Programme artists

United Kingdom · 5 August 2024 · 7 min

AKMP artists Mustafa Said, Peni Candra Rini, Soumik Datta, a trio of the Aga Khan Master Musicians and the five-piece Ustatshakirt Ensemble will play at the Edinburgh International Festival this August.

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Edinburgh, United Kingdom, August 2024 - The Aga Khan Music Programme and the Edinburgh International Festival have come together to co-curate and co-present five concerts at the Festival during August 2024.

The five performances showcase three recent winners of Aga Khan Music Awards – Soumik Datta of the UK, Peni Candra Rini of Indonesia and Mustafa Said of Egypt – as well as a trio of Aga Khan Master Musicians led by Chinese pipa player Wu Man, and the five-piece Ustatshakirt Ensemble from Kyrgyzstan.

The five-concert project marks the second year in an ongoing partnership between the Aga Khan Music Programme and the Edinburgh International Festival, one of the world’s most prestigious and influential arts events. The Festival was established after World War II to reunite people through the arts. The performances highlight the shared values of discovery, curiosity and connection, and the importance both organisations attach to fostering links between individuals and communities through the performing arts.

Fairouz Nishanova, Director of the Aga Khan Music Programme, said: “The Aga Khan Music Programme was created to confirm, support, validate and celebrate the vital and crucial role of musicians and music in the societies and communities that we serve. We are here to ensure that music remains alive and continues to speak languages that are extremely varied, reconfirming its power to lead us toward what is best and highest in ourselves and in others. Bringing this music to an event with the prominence and global perspectives of the Edinburgh International Festival helps us reaffirm the power it can have.”

Performances

Soumik Datta brings the music of the centuries-old Indian sarod to a new global audience.

Soumik Datta

British-Indian performer and composer Soumik Datta – winner of an Aga Khan Music Award in 2022 – brings the music of the centuries-old Indian sarod to a new global audience. His performance, Mone Rekho (‘remember’ in Bengali), is an immersive concert experience that explores memory, music and the human mind, investigating such fundamental issues as identity, history and creativity. Conceived in collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Society, UK, Mone Rekho blends together traditional Indian music with electronics, visual collages, personal anecdotes, even comedy. It is a deeply personal performance with universal relevance, one that celebrates but also questions the passing-down of knowledge and expertise within Indian cultural traditions, while encouraging audience members themselves to consider what it means to remember.

Peni Candra Rini is a composer, performer and teacher.

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Peni Candra Rini

Born in East Java, Indonesia, composer, performer and teacher Peni Candra Rini also won an Aga Khan Music Award in 2022. She describes herself as a “singer and an orator of the poetry of life”, and performs the traditional music of her native Java as a sindhen, or solo female vocalist who traditionally sings alongside a gamelan percussion orchestra. As well as traditional gamelan repertoire, however, she has also explored contemporary and experimental music using her exceptional vocal abilities, creating fresh new visions that bring ancient gamelan music firmly into the 21st century.

Mustafa Said is a singer, instrumentalist, musicologist and composer.

Mustafa Said

Born in Cairo, singer, instrumentalist, musicologist and composer Mustafa Said won the inaugural Aga Khan Music Award in 2019. Alongside his vocal skills, he is also a virtuoso performer on the lute-like oud, an instrument found right across the Middle East. He has released four albums of traditional and contemporary music, as well as writing extensively for theatre, dance and film. His performance blends music and documentary in a rich exploration of the musical traditions of Egypt and the Levant.

World-leading performer Wu Man is joined by Abbos Kosimov of Uzbekistan and Sirojiddin Juraev from Tajikistan.

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Wu Man with Aga Khan Masters

Wu Man has been a world-leading performer on the pipa, a Chinese lute, for several decades. A founding member of the Aga Khan Master Musicians (AKMM), Wu Man is a passionate advocate of traditional Chinese music, as well as a pioneering performer of contemporary compositions, and a respected composer of new music for her instrument. Building on last year’s celebration of the Aga Khan Master Musicians at the Edinburgh International Festival, she is joined by two equally exceptional artists. Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Abbos Kosimov is a virtuoso on the doira, a frame drum with brass rings. Sirojiddin Juraev from Tajikistan plays two of the region’s traditional lutes: the dutar and tanbour. Together, the three musicians present newly created pieces that explore the connections and contrasts between their rich individual musical traditions.

The Ensemble showcases important new voices in rarely-heard Kyrgyz music.

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Ustatshakirt Ensemble

The five-strong Ustatshakirt Ensemble is the resident performing group at the Ustatshakirt Centre in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, founded in 2003 by the Aga Khan Music Programme to support and develop traditional Kyrgyz music through training a new generation of musicians. Today, the Centre teaches music, literature and theatre to 8,000 primary and secondary school students across 41 schools. Blending voices and instruments, the Ustatshakirt Ensemble represents the finest musicians from the Centre, and the Ensemble’s performance showcases important new voices in rarely-heard Kyrgyz music.

Aga Khan Music Programme

Founded in 2000, the Aga Khan Music Programme (AKMP) collaborates with traditional musicians and ensembles throughout Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and West Africa. The AKMP celebrates music as 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, the AKMP also encourages new projects from contemporary artists immersed in those rich heritages, producing music inspired by but not constrained by tradition.

The AKMP carries out its work through a network of music schools and development centres throughout the Middle East and Central Asia, in countries including Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Tajikistan. Their aims are to rethink the regions’ traditional master/apprentice learning model for our contemporary times, and to provide learning and performance opportunities for outstanding young musicians.

The AKMP’s Master Musicians form an ensemble of exceptional performers drawn from the top ranks of artists who have worked with the AKMP since its inception. The Master Musicians look beyond their individual traditions to exchange musical ideas and expertise in innovative performances, as well as passing on their skills as teachers, mentors and curators. Established in 2018, the Aga Khan Music Awards recognise exceptional creativity, promise and enterprise in music across the world.

Edinburgh International Festival

The original festival. We’re the one that started it all, the igniting spark that established Edinburgh as the world’s Festival City.

Founded in 1947, the International Festival was the inspired idea of Rudolf Bing, a cultural pioneer and Jewish refugee, working with a group of civic and artistic leaders. Together, they created a festival that transcends political boundaries through a global celebration of the performing arts.

For 77 years our hand-picked programme of world-leading dance, opera, music and theatre has continued to bring people of different cultures and viewpoints together every August. Meanwhile, our sister festivals have grown up around us – each of them contributing to the atmosphere of unparalleled excitement that transforms the city each summer.

The next International Festival takes place 2-25 August 2024, under the direction of Festival Director and Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti. Benedetti’s vision is to create the deepest level of experience, through the highest quality of art, for the broadest possible audience.

Shining far beyond what you see on stage, we also offer year-round pathways for people of all ages and backgrounds to discover and participate in live performance, focusing on youth, community and industry connections. Learn more.