As the curtain dropped on the NAPA music festival

After a four-day showcase of the fusion between eastern and western classical music, the International Music Festival, organised by National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa), drew to a close on Sunday. With the tagline, ‘Bridging cultures through music,” the event featured musicians from the United States, Italy and Germany, along with local artistes.

The third day of the event comprised a performance by US-based pianist Kimball Gallagher. The evening kicked off with a fusion composed by Napa student Arsalan Parvez. The song was aptly titled ‘Karachi to Austin’, as it fused both eastern and western music. Apart from composing the set, Arsalan played the guitar along with Napa faculty member Ustad Nafees Ahmed on sitar, Waqas Ghulab on tabla and Kimball on piano.

Expectations from the evening’s performances were high due to the bar set by performances on the preceding day, which featured celebrated maestros of Pakistani classical music, such as Ustad Hamid Ali Khan, Ustad Salamat Hussain and Ustad Bashir Khan.

And the performers didn’t disappoint. Their stints were appreciated by audience members as well.

The highlight of the night was Kimball’s bandish in raga ‘Jaunpuri’, which featured budding vocalist Akbar Ali and tabla player Waqas Ghulab. “This is a deep composition by American composer Michael Harrison, who had studied Indian classical music and vocals,” explained Kimball.

With a great turnout, the fourth and final day of the festival was its busiest. The Hathor Plectrum Quartet from Italy played two songs from the Irish suite along with a number titledSong from Naples. Antonio Schiavone, the mandolin player of the group, shared that its composer hadn’t visited Naples before composing the song, but still received commendation for it. The Italian group also played soundtracks of famous Italian movies and showcased their rendition of Leonard Cohen’s song Hallelujah.