Music builds connections. It strengthens the brain, boosting learning and memory. It ties societies to their histories, and brings musicians and music lovers together across continents. This World Music Day, 25 years after the launch of the Aga Khan Music Programme, and the year of the third Aga Khan Music Awards, we explore the powerful effects music has on performers and listeners alike.
Where words fail, music speaks*
Children enjoy their music lesson at the Aga Khan Nursery and Primary School, Dar es Salaam.
AKS
“The great medieval Arab philosophers, many of whom were also music theorists and even talented musicians, had a profound understanding of the power of sound to affect the human psyche and emotions. We are the heirs of their knowledge,” said Prince Amyn Aga Khan at the Aga Khan Music Awards 2022.
Musicians Without Borders
A UK audience reacts to a Central Asian concert.
AKMP / Sebastian Schutyser
Abazbek, a Kyrgyz music teacher, says: “Through music we teach students to express their views, develop their consciousness. Music is a way of communication and also a way to develop leadership skills.” Altynai Ryskulovna Musaeva, a language and literature teacher, agrees. “Through the partnership with Centre Ustatshakirt, our students learn about their cultural heritage as well as the broader world of music. The programme nurtures their talent and broader creativity.”
*Hans Christian Andersen
The echo of our ancestors
“The communities that we serve have never regarded music as simple entertainment,” says Fairouz Nishanova, Director of the Aga Khan Music Programme. “It's a way of life, a way for history to be passed down the generations, and also about customs, behaviour, stories of the homeland. Watch the interview
Students in Centre Ustatshakirt's Umtul Programme perform in Bishkek's National Philharmonic Hall.
AKMP
Raziya Sardybaeva is Chairperson of the Coordination Council of the Ustatshakirt Centre for Traditional Music, established 20 years ago with the support of the Aga Khan Music Programme.
“Kyrgyz traditional music is very distinct from European music. For more than 70 years, our authentic instruments were lost, and people used Europeanised instruments. For example, the two-stringed kyl-kiyak became four-stringed and began to use metal strings instead of horsehair. The playing technique, compositions and repertoire became completely different.
“People began to forget the true sound of these instruments, their names and the names of the masters. They stopped understanding the meaning written between the lines.”
The Centre created teaching programmes that use authentic instruments. These are now part of the national curriculum.
These students are among the 10,000 who have learned the traditional Kyrgyz komuz through the Centre Ustatshakirt.
AKMP
“At first, our students could only play what they heard from their teachers,” says Raziya. “Their friends would find it unrelatable.
“But today, they are creating music themselves, and so authentically that it resonates with their contemporaries. These young musicians have become a bridge between generations and different musical tastes.”
“It is about respecting and honouring traditions, not as barriers, but as stepping stones to new creations,” confirms Fairouz. Read more
A bridge between generations: the Leif Larson Music Centre in Hunza, established by AKDN and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Islamabad, provides free music lessons and performance opportunities for young people.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton Steer
Composing a better life
Former shoemaker Ali Ahmed spent four years learning the saxophone at Al-Darb Al-Ahmar Arts School, Egypt, established by AKMP. He now works in a band. “The school has taken me to a completely different, better place. I have had many debts since I was a child, and I was able to pay them through music.”
AKMP
“The kids who came to our academy back in 2003 have now become Director of the National Conservatory, Director of the National Symphony Orchestra, Director of the National Maqam Orchestra, Director of the National Radio and Television,” says Fairouz. “This is when you know that you've truly reached your audiences: their attitude towards the music of their ancestors has been enhanced by this passage through the music school system that we've helped create.”
“The most talented and successful of our students earn their living through music,” Raziya says. “They have become sound engineers and composers, some play in ensembles, and many have become leaders, creating their own ensembles and establishing their own artistic vision.”
Former Leif Larson Music Centre student, Asiya Shah, studies at the National College of Arts, Lahore. She intends to return to Hunza to teach girls and women music.
Harmonising cultures
“We say these musics and instruments come from other cultures,” says Wu Man, world-leading pipa performer and composer. “But what does that mean? My own instrument, the pipa, came from Persia and Central Asia through the Silk Road trade routes 2,000 years ago, and developed further in China. Music travels between regions and countries, and from the past into the future.”
Ryan Buchanan
Prince Amyn Aga Khan
“Music is a universal language spoken and understood by all peoples with ease, which facilitates dialogue among civilisations,” said His Excellency Dr Jamal Hassan al-Moosawi, Director of the National Museum of Oman, at the Aga Khan Music Awards 2022.
AKDN / Akbar Hakim
His Late Highness Aga Khan IV, at the Aga Khan Music Awards 2019
Orchestrating development
An AKMP-supported project for music making within displaced communities in Mali aimed to provide a link to cultural memory, for future cultural revitalisation. This ensemble performed for World Refugee Day 2017 at the headquarters of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
UNHCR / Susan Hopper
His Late Highness Aga Khan IV
Attracting residents and tourists, businesses and investors, a vibrant cultural sector draws communities together for events, creates employment and entrepreneurship opportunities, and capitalises on local culture – often an area’s chief asset.
This concert celebrating the Sufi poet Hazrat Amir Khusrau was one of a series hosted by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) and the Ford Foundation as part of AKTC’s renewal of the area near Humayun’s Tomb, Delhi. TV programmes, exhibitions and heritage walks all drew more attention to the area.
Ram Rahman
“All of this [AKMP] work complemented our other efforts to advance economic and social development, contributing to more stable communities, nurturing a new sense of inspiration and hope, and building vectors of human connectivity across old divides,” said His Late Highness Aga Khan IV.
AKMP has supported more than 40,000 musicians and musical educators.
Striking a chord
“Music is the unbelievable other world, the home, the place for us to speak with our own soul,” says 2022 Aga Khan Music Award winner Peni Candra Rini.
Dinda Imroatul Bariroh
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