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Feature: Alim and Fargana Qasimov with Kronos Quartet at Barbican, London, 26 September 2008

Alim and Fargana Qasimov, tradition bearers of the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia.The Aga Khan Music Initiative and the San Francisco-based Kronos Quartet have inaugurated a pioneering musical collaboration that brings the quartet together with leading musicians from Azerbaijan and Afghanistan to compose, arrange, and perform new music rooted in Central Asian tradition. In 2008, the AKMICA-Kronos collaboration will produce two music programmes. The first programme, featuring compositions by Homayun Sakhi for Afghan rubab, tabla, and string quartet, was premiered at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Bay Area Now Festival in San Francisco on 2 August 2008 (for a review of that performance, please click here). The second programme, featuring works for the Kronos Quartet and the Alim Qasimov Ensemble, is scheduled to open the Ramadan Nights festival at the Barbican in London on 26 September 2008. For more information on the London concert, please see the Barbican site. Please also see the downloadable flyer.

Music and musicians have historically played a vital role in the cultures of Central Eurasia and the Middle East. Music traditionally has served not only as entertainment, but as a way to reinforce social and moral values. Musicians have provided models of exemplary leadership, whether by bringing listeners closer to God, sustaining cultural memory through epic tales, or strengthening the bonds of community through festivity and celebration. The Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia (AKMICA) was created by His Highness the Aga Khan in 2000 to support the efforts of Central Asian musicians and communities to sustain, further develop and transmit these important musical traditions.

The Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia (AKMICA) is a programme of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC). The Trust promotes the cultural mission of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) and focuses on the physical, social, cultural and economic revitalisation of communities in the Muslim world. The Trust’s programmes also include the Aga Khan Historic Cities Programme, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the on-line resource ArchNet, the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Museum Projects.