Press Releases 2006

July 10, 2006

“SPAN” Magazine Brings Sufi Concert on July 12 by Maestros Shujaat Husain Khan, Meraj Ahmed Nizami

NEW DELHI – Top music artists Shujaat Husain Khan and Meraj Ahmed Nizami will give a Sufi music concert at the Sathya Sai International Auditorium in Delhi on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 under the auspices of the American Embassy’s SPAN magazine.

For over four decades, SPAN magazine has played the role of India’s “window to America.” This event is yet another effort of the magazine to strengthen the cultural bridge between the United States and India through the universal language of music.

A highlight of the program will be talks on Sufism in America by U.S. Fulbright scholar Christopher Holland and on Sufi music in India by film-maker and Sufi music patron Muzaffar Ali.

The artists themselves are exceptional. Shujaat Husain Khan is considered to be among the greatest North Indian musicians of his generation. Son and disciple of the legendary sitar master Vilayat Khan, Shujaat is known both for his mastery of the sitar and for his exceptional singing. In this concert, he will be accompanied by the young tabla maestro Sandeep Das, disciple of Pandit Kishan Maharaj.

Meraj Ahmed Nizami belongs to the community of the Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya Dargah, the birthplace of Qawwali music and tomb of its founders.  His great sensitivity and outstanding repertoire of poetical masterpieces makes him one of the living legends of the lyrical tradition of Qawwali.