WOMAD

Asad Qizilbash

From Pakistan

Biography by Andy Morgan, July 2003:This year’s festival line-up brings together a guru and a devotee of the sarod, the sensuous Indian lute. Asad Qizilbash was born in Pakistan in the early 1960s to the famous violinist K H Qizilbash who was responsible for closing the gap between western and eastern classical music and bringing many talented Pakistani musicians to the attention of the world, including the inimitable Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The young Asad learned the violin quickly under the strict but inspired supervision of his father but when teenage hormones kicked in he became more interested in kicking out rock and roll jams on his guitar. Then, one fateful day in 1981, Asad attended a concert by the great sarod player, Amjad Ali Khan at the Liaquat Hall in Rawalpindi. The conversion was immediate and total. Asad later declared, “before Amjad Ali Khan, there was no Asad Qizilbash.” He threw out his guitar and devoted himself to the sarod, learning by listening to cassettes by his hero and mentor. Whilst working for an oil drilling company in the middle east, Asad would sweeten his spare time with ragas by Amjad Ali Khan and when he moved to Germany in 1989 he gave his very soul to learning the instrument, night and day. After years of blood, sweat, tears and devotion Asad Qizilbash achieved sarod virtuosity and when he returned to Pakistan in 1992 and settled in Islamabad, he became the country’s only master of the instrument. With both the great Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and his number one devotee Asad Qizilbash on the same bill, WOMAD will have us all in sarod heaven before the weekend is out. Asad Qizilbash BiographyFrom www.geocities.com/asadqizi Born in Pakistan in 1963, Asad Qizilbash is living in Islamabad. He is the second of three sons, all gifted for music. However, only Asad pursued a classic music career. His father, the well known and much appreciated K. H. Qizilbash, was himself a very educated and talented self-made violonist. He appreciated very much the western classic music (Beethoven, Mozart, Paganini, etc.). He was composing and playing creations of his own, where the influence if the western music was appearing in famous ragas. When he became the first music composer of the Pakistan Television (PTV) in Rawalpindi, he was a recognized composer-conductor-cum-violonist. In 1973, in front of 59 other countries, he brought to his country the award of the 9th "Hollywood Festival for Ballet Dance". His career as much oriented in the promotion of Pakistanis musicians also. Among others the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Qawal) and the present much appreciated Hadiqa Kayani (Pop singer) were given technical support by him, since the mid seventies. It is no wonder that Asad Qizilbash recieved the best kind of musical instructions, starting with the violin. And today, Asad Qizilbash still remembers each detail of his father's lessons. This did not brought Asad to consider a classical music career in the beginning. As many youngster, Asad Qizilbash also learned guitar, a much more fashion instrument. And he was performing successfully in Folk & Pop songs. However, a complete U-turn occurred in his life when he attended the concert given by Amjad Ali Khan the Ustad of sarod in the Liaquat Hall / Rawalpindi in 1981. A paradigm shift occurred then. As he likes to remember it: "we never liked classical music at that time. But when I heard him, I thought to throw my guitar. I wished I was playing myself that sarod...", and he would add, "before Amjad Ali Khan, there was no Asad Qizilbash...". His father encouraged him warmly and gave him two things: a sarod, and some cassettes from Amjad Ali Khan. From there onwards, Asad Qizilbash listened and learned to play the sarod, with the fragrance of his Ustad. During four years h, Asad Qizilbash worked for a drilling company in the Middle East. After the heavy working hours, he would be listening to the ragas of his Ustad. That was his life on the oil rig in those days. After that, Asad Qizilbash went for a musical retreat. He left for Germany in 1989. He was learning sarod every day and night. He put all his mind and soul into it. He attended the Tagore Institute in Bonn, and gave even two concerts (1990 and 1991). He learned, through the cassettes and videos and Amjad Ali Khan. And just as his father ahd been a self-made violinist, Asad Qizilbash was learning the sarod the same way. And since he came back to Pakistan in 1992, he is the only recognized sarod player in the country. But more than anything else he is a Spiritual son (Ganda band Shagird) of Ustad Amjad Al Khan, to whom he owes much of his musical style. Alex 2000