The Aga Khan Master Musicians, a six-person ensemble brought together by the Aga Khan Music Programme to explore how musical innovation can contribute to the revitalisation of cultural heritage, made its North American debut last week in three specially-produced concert films commissioned and broadcast by prestigious arts presenters: Hopkins Centre for the Arts at Dartmouth College (10 November), the Aga Khan Museum (13 November), and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Asian Art (14 November). Originally scheduled as live events, the concerts were moved online after the pandemic shut down concert halls around the world.

Proclaimed by Unesco in 2019, 18 November marks the inaugural International Day of Islamic Art to commemorate past and present artistic expressions of Islam and celebrate the contribution of Islamic art to artistic movements and culture around the world. The Aga Khan Museum is the first museum in the western world dedicated to Islamic art and objects. Its collection features rare manuscripts of diverse artistic styles and materials embodying more than 10 centuries of human history. Among the most prized items in the collection is the earliest known copy of Ibn Sina’s Qanun fil-Tibb (The Canon of Medicine), which dates back to 1052, as well as a page from the famous 9th-century Blue Quran.