World Sufi Spirit Festival

Bardic Divas - Women’s voices in Central Asia

Ulzan Baïbussynova, singing - Kazakhstan
Raushan Orazbaeva, kobyz - Kazakhstan
Nadira Pirmatova, singing & dutar lute - Uzbekistan

In partnership with AKMI - Aga Khan Music Initiative - Aga Khan Trust for Culture

Bardic Divas, presents three exceptional women singers representing the rich and diverse traditions of Central Asian bards. The appropriation of male dominated musical traditions by female musicians was spurred by the social policies of the Soviet era, which, throughout the vast territory of the USSR, strove to integrate women not only into the work force but into areas of the performing arts from which they had been excluded by local tradition. The effects of Soviet gender politics reverberated strongly in Central Asia, particularly in cities and towns, where, among indigenous populations, men and women typically occupied separate social space.
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Homayoun Sakhi - the art of rubab
Seiar Hashemi, tablas

In partnership with AKMI - Aga Khan Music Initiative - Aga Khan Trust for Culture

Afghanistan

Unfortunately, Afghanistan has become today a coveted object caught in a geopolitical war between Asia and the East. It is nevertheless one of the last few territories where the last mountain lords are still surviving. The folk songs and mystical poetry of Afghanistan draw from a rich pallet of music that is imbued with a colourful harmony of sounds and notes yielded by the criss-crossing of Pashtun, Tajik, Baluchi and Hazara traditions.
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Meshk Ensemble of Mevlana

The Whirling Dervishes

Turkey

Like a majestic peak that dominates the spirit of sufi poetry around the world, the figure of Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, the supreme Sufi poet of the Persian language, dominates the whole of the later Sufi tradition in the eastern lands of Islam.
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Saeid Shanbehzadeh – The art of bagpipe

Iran

The former Indian Ocean route of maritime trade used to go from Africa to the coasts of Yemen, from the Sultanate of Oman to Iran and then go towards the east up to the Indian province of Gujarat, with its crossroads at the island of Zanzibar opposite today’s Tanzania. After the 8th century, when it was ruled by the Sultan of Shiraz, this island became an economic entity run by the zenj, a kind of political assembly constituted by the Sultan’s six sons. Much later in the 18th century, it got attached to Muscat (Sultanate of Oman). Gold, leopard skins and slaves were abundant and were exchanged even for Chinese porcelain!
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The Nile Sufi - A sufi ritual in a village of Upper-Egypt

Sheikh Ghanan and the Sufis of Deir

Egypt

“Thirty dervishes would hold each other’s hands with a sort of language communication, whereas the other four chorus leaders or zikkers would enter gradually in a kind of poetic frenzy which was wild yet tender; their droning sing-song would take on a dramatic tone for a few moments; obviously the verses would respond to each other and the pantomime would speak to some unknown mysterious object of love with tenderness or grief. May be it was like this that priests of ancient Egypt would celebrate the mysteries of Osiris who was found or lost.” The masterpiece Silent film by Franz Osten, 1925 - Scenario Niranjan Pal, after a poem by Edwin Arnold.
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The Night of the Gods - masks and fire celebration

Theyyam ritual

Kerala - India

Theyyam (Theyyattam or Thira) is a popular Hindu ritual form of worship of North Malabar in Kerala, India, predominant in the Kolathunadu area (consisting of present-day Kasargod, Kannur Districts, Mananthavady Taluk of Wayanad and Vadakara and Koyilandy Taluks of Kozhikode of Kerala. As a living cult with several thousand-year-old traditions, rituals and customs, it embraces almost all the castes and classes of the Hindu religion in this region.
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Rabbi Shergil

India

Rabbi Shergil is an Indian musician well known for his debut album Rabbi and the chart-topper song of 2005, "Bulla Ki Jaana (I know not who I am!)".
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The art of Kathak by Anuj Mishra

Lucknow Gharana

Lucknow - India

In the splendid palaces of Mughal emperors and courts of Maharajas, we can find one of the most amazing choreographic traditions of North India. Originally it had the status of a devotional art, but this changed when Kathak’s came in contact with the courts. It was enriched by incorporating elements of the Persian culture which flourished in the three foremost dance schools of North India in Benares, Lucknow and Jaipur. By the virtuosity of its rhythms and expressive gestures, kind of vortex of body and soul, Kathak is almost an expression of heaven…
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Dr. Madan Gopal Singh and ChaarYaar

India

"Appropriately named “ChaarYaar,” Dr. Madan Gopal Singh and ChaarYaar have been playing Sufi music extensively at a variety of venues in India and abroad over the past eighteen years. With an extremely wide repertoire and understanding of Sufi texts ranging from the 13th- to the 20th century, Dr. Madan Gopal Singh’s immense treasure house of knowledge, experience and deep insight makes ChaarYaar’s music universally appealing, meaningful and thought-provoking.
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Raza Khan

Qawwalli

Gujarat – India
In partnership with De Kulture

Raza Khan represents Sufi tradition, which originates in mystical dimension of Islam, in which music is a way of achieving personal connection with God. However, Raza, being a Christian (Pentecost), adopted Sufi philosophy for his creed and enriched with inspirations that he brought from his travels to Pakistan. He sings in Urdu and Punjabi and his wide vocal range, which stretches from lower register to falsetto, allows him effortlessly to match the upper and lower range of the harmonium. Not only vocal scale, but his ability to modulate his voice and pass easily between different ranges, sets him apart from other Sufi artists in the world.
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"Kathak-Kaalam" Creation calligraphy by Julien Breton (light painter)
and Anuj Mishra
David Gallard : photography
Boris Collineau : lights

Lucknow – India & France

Julien Breton has revolutionized the light painting technique by integrating it with the evolved art of Arabic and Oriental calligraphy. In this creation, light and airy Sanskrit letters are infused with the rhythmical grace of Anuj Mishra, the new Indian star of the traditional dance Kathak. This way a photographic technique of taking shots which is used for contemporary artistic creations gets the chance to serve one of the greatest choreographic traditions of India and to also restore the artistic leanings of calligraphy.
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Kalaripayattu martial art from Kerala by
The young artists of The Aseema Trust Foundation

Lucknow Gharana

Kerala - India

Kalari is a place for weapon training in martial art. Such institution were common throughout the country where similar training was imparted in each regions they might have been known by different names, according to the differences of the regional languages. The systems of physical and weapon training imparted within the Kalari came to be called 'Kalaripayatt' means to practise.
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Kabul & his Band Rock Veda

Delhi - India

A Progressive Fusion Band, which truly believes in the power of music. The Band coalesces the natural emotion of Indian Classical with a creative contemporary mix, belting out scintillating & heart hitting original compilations for music aficionados. Sufi to earthy music or from Hindustani to fusion Music…
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Thagni

India

Music is a kind of universal language thats understood by all listening hearts, regardless of the language its sung in, thats exactly what THAGNI is. Its based on the dohas of Legendary Saint and Poet Kabir.
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Chota Divana concert

The Manganiyars and the Langas children with Gazi Khan Barna

Rajasthan - India

This year new children will come and sing their songs which are an integral part of their existence: an existence that is ritualistic and cyclical, punctuated by the rhythms of nature, earth and gods. A long tour of more than 2000kms was undertaken to find new singers. It went across chaotic roads and sandy trails, right through rains in the night with their intermittent flashes of lightning and a fierce sun blazing in the day, only to reveal the harsh landscape of Rajasthan dotted with sparse and wild vegetation…
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Mustafa Ali Jat, surando fiddle

The Bheth tradition of the Kutch

Gujarat – India

In partnership with De Kulture

The tradition of Bheth came a very long way to enable us to listen, it embodied in the person of Mustafa Ali Jat. Bheth was originally the music of Jat Muslims, who brought it from Iran via Pakistan to the Kutch region in India. Jat Muslims were maldhari (cattle herders) and their main occupation besides breeding was processing milk and trading its products. Mustafa Ali Jat and his group are continuing that tradition, but it is the rare style of music they mastered that makes them exceptional.
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Manganiyars and the Langas children workshop

Rajasthan - India

The musicians and poets of Rajasthan carry in them one of the Indian subcontinent’s most dazzling traditions. Princely, charming, proud of their beauty and virtuosity, these musicians of the desert are blessed with the majesty of their environment – Rajasthan, the ancient “Land of Princes”, and now a state with an area of 342,000 square kilometres.
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Bhanwari Devi - Bhajan songs from the Bhopa Nayak

Mohissa - Chiru District - Rajasthan - India

This extraordinary woman singer full of devotion and energy praises the gods and sings the famous words of poets like Kabir.
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The Mantra – A Sufi concert directed by Nawab Khan (santur player)

Rajasthan - India

"Sufi Music is a genre meant as an expression of devotion to God. Nawab Khan, the director of the band THE MANTRA; believes and explains that Sufism is neither a religion nor a cult. The Mantra showcases the pure indulgence of musical instruments like Santoor, Sarangi and Percussions in Sufi Music."
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Harjiram and Okaram Meghwal & Group - Meghwal community

Nevai - District of Barmer - Rajasthan - India

in collaboration with the Jal Bhagirathi Foundation

The bhajan, the religious song of India, is synonymous with devotion. The bhakti, sense of abandonment to the divinity, of renunciation and yearning to the absent being, takes flesh in Rajasthan in the adoration and worship of Lord Krishna, as by the Meghwals by devotional songs dedicated to the famous Saint Baba Ramdev.
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Pani Devi and Meera Devi & Group - Bhil community

Sambhra - District of Barmer - Rajasthan - India

In collaboration with the Jal Bhagirathi Foundation

For one of the first times, Bhil women, a community of the desert of Rajasthan will sing in front of an audience. Pani Devi and Meera Devi totally involved in the work of the Jal Bhagirathi Foundation, express the very specific relation that exists between women and water as a source of life.
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Mahendra Kumar group – Dholi community

Bhadrajun - District of Jalore - Rajasthan – India

In collaboration with the Jal Bhagirathi Foundation