Pakistani Classical Music -The New Tech frontier with Saarey Music

About this event

SOAS SAHM Festival hosts the incredible journey of Saarey Music -- the new technology frontier to listen to South Asian / Pakistani / Hindustani / Indian / classical music on mobile. As part of the Journeys of Empire, Saarey allows us to explore over two days in the festival spaces to discover incredible Ustads, Raags, Khayals, Thumri, Kafi, Qawwali renditions and listen anytime, anywhere on any mobile device. Immerse yourself in the magic of classical music.

Faraan Irfan, the founder & CEO of Saarey, continues a 63-year family legacy of patronage of Pakistani classical music. Faraan will be discussing his work and passion with Farzana Qureshi, Arts & Humanities Librarian in SOAS. In the talk, we will explore the journey of Pakistani classical music post-Partition and the new platform that is now sharing it with the world. Faraan will also explore South Asian culture and heritage with his streaming service Saarey Music.

Faraan grew up listening to South Asian classical music and ever since he can remember, he has seen how this music enriches lives, yet struggled to understand why more people didn't listen to it. Turns out, the issue was as simple as accessibility. People did not have easy access to good quality content.

Deven came up with the brilliant idea to share this music with the world via a music streaming service, and so Saarey Music was born on the blue sofa at the Lower Ground Floor of the Radcliffe Buiding at London Business School, London.

Saarey Music aims to bring Pakistani and Indian communities together with the music that they both culturally share, and improve mental wellbeing with the power of traditional music for the Pakistani community that is otherwise relatively under-represented.

From 2 pm Faraan Irfaan joins the open mic session to recount in our exclusive MEMORY BOX setting, his impressions of the family heritage.

Saarey's presence in the festival makes it truly extra special adding an ambience of mobility and freedom to explore South Asian music heritage at our fingertips - be it in the social hangout spaces or in the specially curated areas for interaction in the Memory Box settings. Sanjukta Ghosh (Co-Director of SOAS SAHM festival)

Registration

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Saarey Music is also a component of the SOAS Library's music collections. Farzana Qureshi, Arts & Humanities Librarian at SOAS will explore alongside Faraan this new platform that is now sharing it with the world.

Farzana was a co-investigator for the Two Centuries of Indian Print, a digital collaboration with the British Library; an International Courier for the Everlasting Flame exhibition held at the National Museum, New Delhi. She is currently a voluntary Outreach Coordinator for Project Dastaan working with Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums. She is passionate about storytelling, diasporas and Asian and African/Caribbean narratives.

Organisers: The Festival is co-directed by Sanjukta Ghosh (SSAI) and Farzana Qureshi (SOAS Library) and supported by the Students Union, SOAS Library, SOAS Research and Enterprise. The festival is in partnership with South Asian Heritage Month, the well-known month-long celebration in the United Kingdom (similar in spirit to Black History Month and other awareness months). The SOAS SAHM is in collaboration with Jasvir Singh OBE and Dr Binita Kane along with the wider team.

Other attractions of the Festival

Viewers of this free program can join the SOAS SAHM Festival Finale when speeches are in the Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre at 5:50 pm by Prof Andrea Cornwall (Outgoing Pro-Director, Research and Enterprise), Khadir Meer (Chief Operating Officer at SOAS), Oliver Urquhart Irvine (Director of SOAS Library) (TBC) among others.
To buy tickets for the 16 July Festival Networking Reception, please click here

Contact email: ssai@soas.ac.uk