Part of the 13h Annual Small World Music Festival

Presented in partnership with the Aga Khan Museum.

Fareed Ayaz, Abu Muhammad Qawwal & Bros belongs to the best known gharana of Qawwali, namely: 'Qawwal Bachon ka Gharana' of Delhi. This school, approzimately 705 years old, was started by Saamat bin lbrahim, the principal student of Hazrat Amir Khusrau. This eminent Gahanna has produced famous Ustads like the late Ustad Tarns Khan, court musician and tutor in classical music Itabrader Shah . In the present generation of this Garahana are Fareed Ayaz al-Hussein and party, nationally and internationally acclaimed as one of the best Qawalls of the sub-continent.



Fareed Ayaz started his training in classical music at a tender age under the rigorous and critical tutelage of his late father Ustad Raziuddin, who himself was an outstanding classical musician and a recipient of the Pakistan President's Pride of Performance medal and was received many other honors from the Government of Pakistan. Fareed Ayaz is an accomplished musician in the genre of classical music and also in the traditional classical naag. He has been performing professionally for the last 30 years, and not only has performed extensively at the national and international level but has been a cultural representative for Pakistan at numerous Pakistani missions abroad. Fareed Ayaz and party have performed in the United Kingdom, U.S.A., France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Austria, India, Kenya, Nepal, Zimbabwe, Bangledesh, Croatia, Turkey, Morocco, Greece, Egypt, Bulgaria, Tunisia, Belgium, Iran, U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Jordan and many others.

Fareed Ayaz has total mastery over various genres of classical music such as dhrupad, khayal, tarana, thumria and dadra which he blends beautifully during his performances of Qawwali. His mastery over classical music was acclaimed at the all Pakistan music conference annual festival (Feb 2005 ), where he was invited to perform as a classical singer and not a Qawwal.

Fareed Ayaz is well versed in several languages and can ably perform in Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi, Pushto, Hindi, Poorbi, Bangle Marathi, Persian Arabic and Turkish, in addition to Japanese. He and his party have performed in the presence of many luminaries including the president of Pakistan and Prince Hasan bin Talal of Jordan.