Community

By Mudassir Raja Music moves people emotionally. There are no borders or boundaries; it helps people get into their own imagination. Eimear Noone, an award winning Irish composer and conductor, believes music is a binding force for human beings and helps bring different cultures and peoples closer. Noone was recently in Doha to conduct ‘Video Games Live’ — an immersive concert event that featured music from the most popular video games of all time. A day before her performance with Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (QPO) at Qatar National Convention Centre, Noone, who is slated to be the first woman ever to conduct orchestral music at the Oscars today spoke to Community about her orchestral as well as video game music. Noone, a resident of Malibu in California, splits her time between composing music for video games, feature films, television, and commercials, and conducting classical and game music concerts. Most recently, she composed and conducted for the iconic video game, World of WarCraft and its new expansion, Warlords of Draenor. The score for ‘WoD’ received the 2014 Hollywood Music in Media Award for ‘Best Video Game Score’ and was nominated for 5 Annual Game Music Awards, and the ASCAP Composer’s Choice Award for Game Score. She also composed the score for the feature film, The Donner Party (2009) starring Crispin Glover, among others. As a conductor she has led many of the world’s great ensembles such as The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Dallas Symphony, The Royal Philharmonic, The Sydney Symphony, The National Symphony and Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra just to name a few. Arguably, the world’s current premier conductor of video game scores — both in the studio and concert hall — her credits include the most respected in the genre, including games such as Heroes of The Storm, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Reaper of Souls, Hearthstone, and Overwatch. Diablo III, as one example, smashed the record of game sales by selling over 3.5 million copies in the first 24 hours alone. It also won the 2012 GDC award for best audio. In response to a question about how she manages to play classical orchestra music for video games, Noone said: “Throughout history, composers have collaborated with other media — opera, early ballet. Today’s world poses for collaborations with video games, films, and every possible visual media, including opera and ballet. So, really, it is music that is expressing the emotions or creating a world that is very much attached to people’s imaginations. “It is really programmed music, if you want to use classical music terms. The programmed music of 21st century composes of video games. The job of the video game music composers is to extract the emotions from the player and create an environment and energy inside the specific area of a game.” About how different it is to play for orchestra from playing for video games music, the world class composer said: “Well, certain principles are the same. However, like any music, knowing the background is important. We also synchronise with the pictures on screen, which is an added element. We synchronise to certain sonic elements that may not be available on stage; we bring the whole sound world of the game together with the orchestra. It surprisingly mixes when you are there.” When asked what the benefits of playing video game music are, Noone said: “It is very much music of the moment. In the 21st century, if you are going to be connected with people on what is current and what is happening now, this [video game music] is the great way to do it. Orchestra music is hundreds of years old yet it is as relevant and current today as it ever was. This is just a different context. The audience is a different audience. It is not just a concert. It is an experience bringing people together who are passionate about video games. “It is very emotional for the audience. When people play games, they kind of capsulate a particular period of time for them or a particular person for them that they played with and that person may or may not be with them.  There are differently abled people who get fully abled inside a video game. For the music, it is very much music of 2020.” For the female conductor, the orchestra can serve different audiences. “There are different kinds of audience and my job is to serve the audience. I do not think that it is a good idea to say that the orchestra only belongs to classics. Just bear in mind that the classical music that we know today was the music of people at the time. People talk about standards of music. We do not know the classical music. We got the best of the best that survived. I believe in every genre of music; the best is going to survive. We have got everything. It is a chance to be heard, to breathe and to live in its time. I think there is room for everything.” Noone, who performed with QPO at the annual UN General Assembly meeting last year, feels at home while working with the orchestra. “It is like coming home. On musical, intellectual, and personal level, I absolutely love them. I love the attitude in the orchestra, the standard of the play. I love the smiling faces. I love the diversity in the orchestra. This is a unique orchestra. This is perfect for Doha. One of the objectives of the orchestra is to bring east and west together. We did that at the UN. It was so moving for me to be there in the centre of the group which had traditional classical instruments and traditional Middle Eastern instruments playing together the music of Dana Alfardan, a Qatari composer. It was incredibly emotional. I think that performance represented everything that the QPO is about.” When asked what about the video game music she likes the most, Noone said: “I am endlessly fascinated by music. I will never know everything about it. It is not possible. There are many extraordinary musicians and artistes around the world and they pull me and push me in different directions that are good for growth as an artiste and person. It is like seeing the score in front of me in three dimensions. It is like living some virtual reality.” 

The Oscars have a problem, and it’s not going to be easily solved. In 2015, frustrated by yet another all-white slate of acting nominees (and the fact that seven out of eight best-picture candidates focused on stories of white men), former attorney April Reign coined the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, drawing attention to the academy’s roster of primarily old, male and white voters. (A 2012 Los Angeles Times investigation found nearly 94% of Oscar voters were Caucasian and 77% were male, with a median age of 62.) Facing boycotts and a hail of negative publicity, then-academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs promised change: In early 2016, the academy pledged to double its number of female and diverse members by 2020. And yet here we are, in 2020 — with an almost all-white slate of acting nominees (19 out of 20), an all-male directing roster and seven out of nine slots for best picture filled with stories of white men. The academy has indeed dramatically expanded its roster over the last several years, adding several thousand new members to a list that now numbers approximately 9,000. (The academy has been around since 1927; its roster includes Oscar winners, nominees and others with significant experience in the motion-picture industry. Because of lifetime memberships, many members are older; because of the reality of the industry, most are white and male.) And while the majority of those new members — all of whom conform to the academy’s stringent membership guidelines — are women and/or people of colour, the overall numbers are still far from being reflective of society at large. By 2019, per the most recent available numbers, available, academy membership was 31% female and 16% racial minority. It’s an improvement, but not a sea change. And … why should this matter? Aren’t the Oscars just, basically, a trade show in which insiders vote for the people they know, and everyone gets to go to a fancy party afterwards? Why are we concerning ourselves with the membership demographics of a private group? Just because I happen to think Greta Gerwig deserved a directing nod for Little Women more than Todd Phillips deserved one for Joker, or that Lulu Wang’s The Farewell deserved nominations in multiple categories, doesn’t mean everyone thinks so, right? (Obviously many members of the academy didn’t.) But representation matters because success at the Oscars, like it or not, shapes what movies we see in theatres. If only a certain kind of story is getting told, other stories are crowded out. And so movies like The Farewell, Us, Waves, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Hustlers — all acclaimed, all telling stories outside the white, male experience — go unrecognised at Oscar time, without one nomination in the bunch. Maybe voters genuinely thought these weren’t as good as Joker, The Irishman, Ford v Ferrari and the like. Or maybe — more likely, I suspect — many didn’t even watch them. Perhaps they were overwhelmed by a shortened voting cycle (the academy, responding to slumped ratings for the telecast and complaints of award-season fatigue, moved the awards two weeks earlier this year), and by the dozens of DVD screeners mailed to academy members by studios hoping to catch some Oscar glory. And perhaps, looking at those piles of movies, they were drawn to the “name” movies first, or to those that most closely matched their own frame of reference. (When Little Women was nearly shut out of the Golden Globes, producer Amy Pascal told Vanity Fair she worried that “unconscious bias” kept many male voters from watching her film, and other films not told from a white, male perspective.) So while the evolution of the academy’s membership is important, the solution to the #OscarsSoWhite problem involves broader action: How to draw voters’ attention to smaller movies, the distributors for which may not have the resources to send out thousands of screeners or buy prominent advertising? And how to take the industry in a direction where more diverse stories — projects that don’t immediately resemble movies made by Hollywood hundreds of times before — can be told? There are steps that can be taken to address the first question: Actor Carey Mulligan, among others, has suggested academy voters should need to document that they have actually seen the movies they have voted for. (This is procedure for several categories — documentary, international feature film and short films — but not the major ones, in which some voters may check off familiar names without actually seeing the films in question.)  Reign, in an editorial in Variety last month, floated the idea of making all Oscar-eligible films available to academy members online, levelling the playing field. Time will gradually alter the academy’s demographics further; change doesn’t happen overnight, or even over a year. And Reign noted in her piece that while some of the onus for change is on the academy and Hollywood, “there’s also onus on us as consumers, as regular moviegoers who pay our hard-earned dollars to either sit in a theatre or stream movies at home. We must choose not to reward mediocrity. We must continue to use our platform — our ratings and our dollars — to support films that reflect a myriad of experiences.” Two years ago at the Oscars ceremony, Frances McDormand took a moment in her speech to ask all the nominated women, in any category, to stand. “OK, look around, everybody,” she said. “Look around, ladies and gentlemen, because we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed.” If that moment inspired even one greenlit project, the resulting film is one small step in the right direction. The academy, and all of us, just need to keep marching.  — The Seattle Times/TNS 

He links different colours with specific musical tones. He makes an autistic child remember the colour with the specific music to enhance his or her memory. Dr Waseem Kotoub, a British national of Syrian-Lebanese origin, is a pianist and composer. He is also a medical doctor, who has merged music and medicine through music therapy. He is currently working with British Council in Qatar as Senior Programme Manager, Culture and Sport Programme Gulf. Dr Waseem was born in the UK and received most of his musical education from Vladimir Zaretisky. He has already gained a solid pianistic experience and was awarded a scholarship from Said Foundation to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Diana Ketler and Colin Stone which he graduated from with merit and got his PGdip in piano performance and the LRAM (Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music) in music teaching.  He has participated in several master classes with eminent musicians such as Imre Rohman, Christopher Elton, Victor Bunin, Paskal Nimorofski and Petras Guiniasis. As a special prize winner of IBLA piano competition in Italy and first prize winner of Said Foundation Achievement Award, he has been playing with several orchestras such as Brandenburg National Youth Orchestra, and Syrian National Symphony Orchestra. He has two music albums Last of Ommyads and Healing Tunes. Dr Waseem composes for piano and chamber music and his compositions are a fusion of western and eastern music. He has also made television and radio appearances. He has also been taking part in different international music competitions as a judge. Dr Waseem is a peace ambassador who promotes peace wherever he performs. In an interview with Community, he spoke about his work and experiences at length. “I have been playing piano since I was six. I have been contributing to the cultural exchanges through different British festivals and cultural programmes in schools. “I was an assistant surgeon. Later, however, I switched to the field of medical management.” When it comes to playing piano, Dr Waseem got real impact from his parents. “My father used to sing at the university. My mother used to play piano. They wanted to see me playing piano as a professional. They influenced me a lot. Then, the stories behind different music compositions also inspired me. You also feel that you are doing something special that puts the spotlight on you.” He believes in the theory that piano is king of all music instruments. “One can orchestrate on the piano. There has been a huge development of piano as a music instrument. To be honest, I was not given a choice. My parents wanted me to play piano. I felt it ok and thought it nice to continue playing it. “The way piano responds to you is really amazing. It is very easy to start with but it is very difficult to master it. Even when I play with orchestra, I only imagine about piano.” Dr Waseem has also been composing orchestral music. “I have some compositions already performed in London. That was the chamber music with oud, Arabic percussion, violin, viola, cello and flute.” When asked how he defines music therapy, he said: “Some people say that music therapy is listening to music. It is not purely listening to music. It is actually using musical instruments to achieve different goals such as educational or behavioural goals. For example, autistic children might have difficulty in differentiating in many colours. What I do is that I link the red colour with a specific tone and make the autistic child remember the colours from the tones. It is kind of enhancing his memory. So, it is just a different way of using music instruments for different goals. Some autistic children have sensitivity to the sound. First, you need to evaluate the child. If the children have the sensibility, they will look through their ears. About 20 to 25 percent children have the sensitivity. Even if they do not have the sensitivity, you will see amazing response to the rhythms only. They will start moving with the rhythms. Without music, you will see autistic children making no eye contact or movement. “There are also specific items you use to make people more relaxed or to reduce some pain. They use music sessions before radio therapy for cancer patients. They also use it for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. In Qatar, I have done many workshops for nurses and other medical staff. As far as my medicine practice, I am not doing it. However, I continue to receive requests for medical advice.” Dr Waseem sees two people inside him. One is an art crazy persona and the other analytical thinker. “These two people complement each other. Without either of them, I am not complete. That also gives me different friends and different groups of people. To be honest that keeps me enjoying my life. If one side gets boring, I can switch to the other one.” Explaining his association with — and appreciation — for western classical music, Dr Waseem said: “It is a matter of exposure. As a child, I had plenty of exposure to western classical music. To me, it came very naturally. I can understand it. It is a universal language.” In his compositions, the pianist creates fusion of Western music with the music from the Middle East. “My music is chamber music. I mix western music with Arab music. That is very apparent in my compositions. “If we have a look at the population of Qatar, we can see about 70 percent are expatriates. Expatriates have keen interest in classical music. There is a growing interest for the genre among Qataris also. Further, Qatar Music Academy is offering many courses in classical music. The Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra is doing wonders. It was an honour for me to perform with the orchestra on its very first concert of 2020.”

This year’s Sundance Film Festival ran January 23 to February 2 and The Times was on the ground in Park City, Utah, to track the highs and lows each day. Upon their return to Los Angeles, critics Kenneth Turan and Justin Chang discussed the standout films (most of which will be released throughout the year) and what the festival’s juries got right in their awards selections. Kenneth Turan: Sundance 2020 now officially belongs to the ages, and I have to confess that it is wearing well in my memory. What I appreciated is not necessarily the knockout films, though there were some, but how strong the lineup was across the board. Maybe I am just getting better at picking what I see, but there were lots of solid, engrossing films that did not make me feel like I was wasting my life watching them, and that is no small thing. Justin Chang: Strong across the board is right. I’ll start by noting that the last two films I saw at Sundance this year both fell outside the festival’s competition and Premieres slates, and together they made for a most hypnotic double bill. First up was Max Richter’s Sleep, Natalie Johns’ pleasurably lulling documentary about the live performance of Richter’s gorgeous, eight-hour piece at Grand Park in Los Angeles. Then came Vitalina Varela, Pedro Costa’s bleak, beautiful and uncompromising portrait of a woman who arrives in Portugal from Cape Verde after the death of her husband. It’s the first Costa film to play Park City, and a bit of a shock to the system, to judge by the steady stream of walkouts at my screening. But movies like these are one reason Sundance remains a vital destination for cinephiles; distributors may be on the lookout for the next big crowd-pleaser, but there’s much to be said for an artistic experience that recalibrates your internal rhythms as you watch. Turan: Totally agreed. The best thing about being a spectator at Sundance is not seeing the latest buzzed-about feature ahead of the crowd but the chance to see compelling, entertaining films the crowd otherwise may never get a chance to experience. On the dramatic side I thought of the Swedish film Charter, directed by Amanda Kernell, a searing look at a divorced woman and the relationships she has with her children and her ex that are so unblinkingly savage they make Marriage Story look positively mild. As to documentaries that are sadly unlikely to go anywhere, I admit to being completely charmed by The Mole Agent. Set in Chile and directed by Maite Alberdi, it’s an AARP version of a John le Carré novel, following an 83-year-old man hired to go undercover at an old-age home to see if one of the residents is being looked after properly. A charmer with a point of view. The big news out of Sundance, however, is always the winners, announced on Saturday night. Did any films you admired walk off with a prize? Chang: Quite a few did, actually, though I should note that, as is usually the case, I managed to see only a fraction of the 56 titles in competition. I feel grateful that one of them was Massoud Bakhshi’s Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness, the engrossing Iranian drama that won the top prize in the World Cinema dramatic competition. Let’s just say that as bad-marriage movies go, this one would fit nicely alongside Charter — and also, for that matter, the noncompeting entry The Nest, a brooding return to feature filmmaking from Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) that casts Jude Law and Carrie Coon as an increasingly unhappy couple. Over in the US dramatic competition, I was pleased to see Radha Blank win the directing award for her very sharp, funny and poignant comedy The 40-Year-Old Version, which she also wrote and starred in. Female filmmakers have long been well represented at Sundance — better represented, in fact, than they are in the industry overall — and their continued ascendancy was clearly one of the dominant stories of the 2020 edition. The jury also awarded special filmmaking prizes to Josephine Decker for Shirley, a feverishly inspired biographical drama starring Elisabeth Moss as the writer Shirley Jackson, and to Eliza Hittman for Never Rarely Sometimes Always, her bleak and powerful drama about a teenage girl trying to secure an abortion. Both very well deserved. How about you, Kenny? What award winners did you love? Turan: The big news in the US dramatic competition is that Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari pulled off the rare feat of taking both the grand jury prize and the audience award for its autobiographical story of what happens to a young Korean American boy when he and his family move to Arkansas from California. Minari combined heartfelt storytelling with a restrained style to become one of the festival’s most popular films across the board, the kind of film Sundance was founded to showcase in the first place. Other potent films to come away winners included Edson Oda’s impressively offbeat Nine Days, a speculative drama about personified souls wanting to be born that took the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Prize, and Heidi Ewing’s moving love story I Carry You With Me, whose inventive part-narrative, part-documentary style won both the audience award and the jury prize in the Next category. Though they didn’t win anything, I want to put in a good word for a couple of dramas, specifically Miss Juneteenth and its all-in performance by Nicole Beharie as a former beauty queen, and the Tessa Thompson-starring Sylvie’s Love, as gorgeous and caring a re-creation of late-1950s/early-1960s New York as you are ever going to see. Chang: With regard to Minari, I should acknowledge that Chung — or Isaac, as I know him — is a dear friend of mine, and my entirely biased self could not be happier to see the embrace for his film. I also share your admiration, Kenny, for Sylvie’s Love, lovingly directed indeed by Eugene Ashe as a kind of stylised Harlem-set tribute to the lush domestic melodramas of Douglas Sirk, but this time with black characters front and centre in a way that they seldom were in the ’50s and ’60s. Among the US documentary prizewinners, it was thrilling to see Garrett Bradley’s Time, one of my favourite films in the festival, win a directing award for its chronicle of 20 years in the life of an African American family torn apart by crime and punishment. It’s a dazzling formal feat, but more than that, it’s a profoundly sad movie about what it means to grow up without a father, to absorb that blow continually, day after day. That makes Time an oddly fitting companion piece, I suppose, with another prize-winning nonfiction title, Dick Johnson Is Dead, in which the director Kirsten Johnson prepares to say goodbye to her father by making a movie about his inevitable death. In her previous feature, Cameraperson, Johnson proved that playfulness and profundity were far from mutually exclusive; she’s done the same here in a documentary whose mordant comedy becomes the ultimate expression of love. Kenny, I know you saw more documentaries than I did. Did you and the jurors see eye to eye on any of them? Turan: Really, like you, Time was at the top of my list. It’s so rare for a pointed social-issue film to be emotionally compelling and dazzling in its filmmaking style — that’s a trifecta that doesn’t hit very often. It was no surprise but satisfying nevertheless for Boys State to take the US documentary grand jury prize. Acquired during the festival by Apple and A24 for a reported $12 million, a Sundance doc record, it speaks both to the current political moment and the power of individual personality in its fly-on-the-wall look at a thousand Texas high-school students spending a week wheeling and dealing and constructing a representative government from scratch. I also wanted to give a final shoutout to another doc about teenagers, Giving Voice, where you can watch the way performing playwright August Wilson’s superb monologues actually change lives. And of course to the film that won hearts if not awards, The Truffle Hunters, where old and cranky men and their old and cranky dogs leave no Northern Italian stone unturned in their search for elusive but valuable white truffles. Chang: The Truffle Hunters is indeed a delight. I say that as more of a dog person than a truffle person myself, but directors Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw’s film left me with renewed affection for both. Happily, it was acquired during the festival by Sony Pictures Classics, so audiences will get to see it. Just as they will get to see Miranda July’s wonderfully unpredictable Evan Rachel Wood-starring comedy, Kajillionaire (in talks with the distributor A24 as of this writing); Phyllida Lloyd’s moving drama Herself, starring and co-written by the excellent Clare Dunne (acquired mid-festival by Amazon Studios); Emma Sullivan’s insidiously creepy Netflix documentary Into the Deep; and many more movies that we’ll be writing about over the next several months that made this edition of Sundance so worthwhile. — Los Angeles Times/TNS

The exciting and energetic music simply dazzled the buzzing audience during the recent video games music concert that was organised at Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC). ‘Video Games Live’ – an immersive concert event – featured music from the most popular video games of all time for the fifth consecutive year in Doha. The concert offered the energy and excitement of a rock concert. The power and emotion of the symphony orchestra, and choir combined with the technology, interactivity, incredible visuals and fun sent the large audience into a kind of frenzy. Completely synchronised cutting-edge video screen visuals, state-of-the-art lighting and special on-stage interactive segments, aptly anchored by Tommy Tallarico (American video game music composer), dazzle audiences of all ages – gamers and non-gamers alike. The two-hour-long phenomenal video game concert offered well-loved music from the most popular video games of all time. In the first hour, music of 10 video games was played with the videos arousing the passion and energy among the gathering. The games were namely; Castlevania (Tron), Mega Man, Resident Evil, WoW: Cataclysm Cinema, Overwatch, Beyond Good & Evil, Batman, Space Invaders, Metal Gear Solid, and Chrono Trigget/Cross. In the second half of the concert, the audience was entertained with the music of video games such as Kingdom Hearts, DOTA2, AC Syndicate, Monkey Island, Tomb Raider, Silent Hill II, Street Fighter II, Halo Trilogy, and FF7 One-Winged Angel.  Outside Al Mayassa theatre at QNCC, the organisers and gamers set up multiple stalls displaying different gadgets and equipment associated with video games besides having the video games CDs. The orchestra music was arranged by Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra and the concert was aptly conducted by seasoned maestro Eimear Noone, the Oscar winning Irish conductor and composer living in Malibu, California. The energy and mastery of the female conductor won special accolades from the audience. Eimear, who won an Oscar in 2014, splits her time between composing music for video games, feature films, television, and commercials, and conducting classical and game music concerts. Most recently, Eimear composed and conducted for the iconic video game, World of WarCraft and its new expansion, Warlords of Draenor. She also composed the score for the feature film, The Donner Party (2009) starring Crispin Glover, among others. As a conductor she has led many of the world’s great ensembles such as The Philadelphia Orchestra (The Mann Center), The Dallas Symphony (Myerson Hall), The Royal Philharmonic (Hammersmith Apollo Theatre), The Sydney Symphony (Sydney Opera House), and The National Symphony (Wolf Trap), just to name a few. Tommy Tallarico, who anchored the music show, is an American video game music composer, musician, sound designer, television personality and live show creative director and producer. He has worked on over 300 video game titles since the 1990s. He is actually the creator of the concert series –  Video Games Live – a multi-award-winning symphony orchestra that has played video game music across the world since 2002. Tommy made the concert more lively with his informative and explanatory chats and amusing chats about how and when certain video games were made and how much popular they got all around the world. An interesting episode took place when Tommy invited a teenage boy from the audience and asked him play a video game at the stage. Yet another highlight of the event was the music for a video game played by Qatar’s junior choir. “I am very excited to attend the convert. It is lovely to watch the musicians play live as the games run a big video screen in the background. I got a chance to revisit my memories regarding some of the games that I used to play in my childhood days. “The promotion activity for the video games outside the main auditorium was exciting. People with different backgrounds were seen taking interest in different sorts of games. It was really nice to be here,” said Jabira Abde, an Arab expatriate living in Doha. 

It is very aptly said that the best antiques to collect are old friends. A reunion is always nostalgic and refreshing. The recent reunion of internationally renowned Pakistani band Junoon, which literally translates into obsession or passion, has been getting positive vibes in the pop music scene. The music lovers in Doha, particularly the expatriates from South Asian countries, are anxiously looking forward to the band’s performance tomorrow – January 30. After 17 long years, the reunited band is coming to Qatar to bring back the nostalgia and relive the magic of their smash hits. The ‘Sultans of Rock’ will rock the Doha stage once again through a live performance at the Qatar National Convention Centre starting at 7:30pm.  The concert, ‘PK Music Fest Season II’, is presented by Rahmodus as part of Shop Qatar, with the support of Q-Tickets. Tickets are priced at QR500 (premium), 350 (fan zone), 100 (silver) and 60 (bronze). The tickets can be bought now at www.q-tickets.com A pre-event meet and greet with the band members has been planned by the organisers at Mondrian Doha at 7pm today (Wednesday). The event will be an opportunity for the music enthusiasts to see and talk to the stalwarts of pop music in Pakistan. This is not the first time the group will perform in Qatar. In 2003, the band won the hearts of the Doha crowd. This time, the band is headed for another full-house show as they enjoy a devoted fan base in the country, the organisers have said.  Not only has the band earned the ‘South Asia’s most successful band’ recognition, but are also regarded as ‘One of the biggest rock bands in the world’ by Q Magazine and ‘The U2 of Pakistan’ by The New York Times. When the band was formed in 1990, it was the brainchild of lead guitarist and songwriter Salman Ahmad. Ali Azmat, vocalist, and Brian O’Connell, bassist, completed the trio. As pioneers of Sufi rock, Junoon is one of the most influential bands of all time. Some of their record-breaking hits include Sayonee, Saeein and Jazba-e-Junoon, among others. The band members, who hail from Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, and Tappan, New York (US), have released 19 albums and sold 30mn copies worldwide. The band has made a comeback after a 13-year hiatus. They called it quits in 2005 after a whirlwind three decades of stardom. Following their sold-out international concert tours since they were reunited in 2018, Qatar will witness, once more, Junoon’s intense musical chemistry that is as electrifying as their music. The band’s loyalists, who call themselves ‘Junoonis’, are highly anticipating the grand comeback. Fans coming from the UK, the US, GCC and the subcontinent are all gearing for the reunion tour in Qatar. Junoon achieved success during the early 1990s. Its members were signed to major record label EMI Records and afterwards released their self-titled debut album Junoon in 1991. After two years, the band recorded their second album Talaash (1993) with their new bassist Brian O’Connell after Nusrat Hussain left the band. The release of their second album began to create a cult following for the band. In 1996, Junoon released their third album Inquilaab, and it was only then that Junoon developed a nationwide fan following, with blending rock guitars and bluesy vocals with eastern elements like the use of tablas, raga-inspired melodies, traditional Pakistani folk music, and eastern-inspired poetry. The following year, the band recorded the critically acclaimed Azadi (1997), being the band’s first international record deal, and making it Junoon’s debut album in neighbouring India. The band went on to record and release Parvaaz in 1999. The band found renewed success and popularity starting with 2001’s Andaz and through 2003’s Dewaar and their supporting tours. Junoon celebrated their 25th anniversary by releasing their eighth studio album titled Door in 2016.

When it comes to pop stars, Taylor Swift isn’t the most forthcoming. While her fans love to read into her every song lyric, she never actually reveals who her music is about. Unlike Miley Cyrus or Lady Gaga, her social media presence is pretty demure, mostly reserved for photos of her cats and promotional material. So when it was announced that Swift had agreed to be the subject of a new Netflix documentary, we couldn’t wait to see what — if any — candid details she’d disclose in Miss Americana, which begins streaming January 31 on Netflix. We went to the Sundance Film Festival premiere of the movie, and took notes on all the doc’s biggest revelations. She struggled with an eating disorder In New York City, the outside of Swift’s apartment — her “front yard,” as she calls it — is permanently surrounded by paparazzi ready to snap photos of her to sell to tabloids. But in Miss Americana, the singer acknowledges that she’ll no longer look at the images posted of her online daily. “I tend to get triggered by something — whether it’s a picture of me where I feel like my tummy looked too big, or someone said that I looked pregnant or something — and that will trigger me to just starve a little bit. Just stop eating.” Swift goes on to reveal that she struggled with an eating disorder for years, often feeling as if she was going to pass out during her concerts. She made a list of everything she put in her mouth each day, exercised constantly and got down to a size double zero. (She’s now a size six, she says.) “I would have defended it to anybody who said ‘I’m concerned about you,’” she says. “I don’t think you know you’re doing that when you’re doing it gradually. There’s always some standard of beauty that you’re not meeting. Because if you’re thin enough, then you don’t have that a-s that everybody wants, but if you have enough weight on you to have an a-s, then your stomach isn’t flat enough,” she says. “It’s all just (expletive) impossible.” Now, whenever she has the urge to judge her body harshly, she practices positive self-talk: “Nope. We don’t do that anymore. We do not do that anymore because it’s better to think you look fat than to look sick.” She wishes she’d spoken out against Donald Trump during the 2016 election After years of keeping her political beliefs to herself for fear of isolating her fan base, Swift first voiced support for a candidate during the 2018 midterms. The film shows her weighing whether or not to speak out against Republican Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn, and those closest to her fret that it will put her in physical danger. During a heated family discussion, her father points out that old-school performers like Bing Crosby and Bob Hope never talked about politics. Swift, her eyes filling with tears, tells him she’s “sad” she didn’t publicly oppose Trump two years ago. “But I can’t change that,” she says. “I need to do this. I need you to, dad, to forgive me for doing it — because I’m doing it.” Just as she’s about to press send on an Instagram post about Blackburn, her team is still concerned about the impact. Her publicist warns Swift that “the president could come after you.” “(Expletive) that,” Swift replies. “I don’t care.” She used to live her life to be liked As a kid, Swift says, she kept stacks of journals. But she didn’t just write in them with sparkly gel pens. At one point, she used an actual brass quill and ink. And what did she use the antiquated writing tool for? To write about her “moral code” — “the need to be thought of as good.” “It was all I wrote about. It was all I wanted,” she admits in the movie. “It was the complete and total belief system I subscribed to as a kid.” She lived for “pats on the head,” she says — any praise that she was doing a good job on her homework or her songwriting. She only found fulfilment through external approval, and subsequently became “the person who everyone wanted me to be.” That’s why public criticism — She’s annoying! She’s gone through so many boyfriends! She’s only friends with models! — has been difficult for her to overcome. “When people decided I was wicked and evil and conniving and not a good person, that was the one that I couldn’t really bounce back from,” she says, “because my whole life was centred around it.” Her sexual assault court battle changed her irrevocably In 2015, Colorado disc jockey David Mueller sued Swift, claiming he lost his radio station job after her security team accused him of groping the singer. Swift countersued, alleging assault and detailing the inappropriate touching. She won and was awarded the amount she sought: $1 in damages. But the emotional impact the verdict had on her was far more consequential. “I was unspeakably and unchangeably different after the sexual assault trial,” Swift says in the film. “No man, or organisation, or my family, will ever understand what that was like.” Despite winning the case, Swift said she didn’t feel any sense of victory “because the process is so dehumanising.” And in her situation, she had seven witnesses and a photo backing up her claim. “What happens when you get raped and it’s your word against his?” she asks. She was attracted to Joe Alwyn because of his ‘wonderful, normal, balanced kind of life’ Swift has dated a handful of famous men — Jake Gyllenhaal, Harry Styles, Tom Hiddleston — who have also made their way into her music. But when she started dating actor Joe Alwyn in late 2016, she liked that he had more of a “wonderful, normal, balanced kind of life.” His vibe put her at ease during a difficult time in her life, she said, when she was facing Kanye West-fueled backlash. (Remember the “I made that bitch famous” line from his 2016 jam Famous? Yeah, it was about her.) Alwyn barely appears in the documentary, though. At one point, she kisses his hand during a car ride. She also runs into his arms after a concert, and the couple sweetly drape their arms over each other’s shoulders as they wander around backstage. She didn’t try a burrito until she was 26 Just as she’s about to turn 29, Swift sits in the record studio reflecting on what the age signifies. There’s a part of her, she admits, that isn’t ready to have kids — for “all this grown up stuff.” Heck, she points out, she just tried a burrito for the first time two years ago. Which means that Taylor Swift did not eat a wondrous mix of meat, cheese, beans, rice, guacamole and sour cream until she was apparently 26 years old. Process that. She’s not ready for kids yet While Swift takes excellent care of her feline children — she even feeds one at her dinner table as she eats alongside the animal — she isn’t ready for kids of her own just yet. At 29, she says, part of her feels “57 years old” — but another part is “definitely not ready to have kids.” Case in point? She recalls visiting a friend who just had a baby and hearing how the newborn’s schedule consists of sleeping, eating and being changed. Swift’s response? “So it’s like a Tamagotchi,” she says with a smile.          — Los Angeles Times/TNS  

The Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (QPO) recently set out its musical voyage for 2020 with an impressive concert with nostalgic tunes in presence of an august audience. The opera house of Katara Cultural Village was full to its capacity as the concert was a sold-out show. Members of the diplomatic community in Doha and the appreciators of the Western classical music were literally mesmerised by the orchestral music with the overtone of piano. Not a single soul left the auditorium until the orchestra stopped playing their instruments. The orchestral concert was exquisitely led by Alastair Willis, a Grammy-nominated conductor. Under his guidance, the orchestra presented classical symphonies in a perfect erythematic and melodious way. Alastair is the music director of the South Bend Symphony Orchestra. In the past seasons, he has guest-conducted orchestras around the world including the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Mexico City Philharmonic, Orquestra Sinfonica de Rio de Janeiro, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonic, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, China National Orchestra (Beijing), and Silk Road Ensemble (with Yo-Yo Ma) among many others. His recording of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortileges with Nashville Symphony and Opera for Naxos was Grammy nominated for Best Classical Album in 2009. Alastair completed a successful four year tenure as music director of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra. Last season, he was re-engaged by the QPO, Victoria Symphony B.C., North Carolina Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Orquestra Sinfonica Barra Mansa, Symphonia Boca Raton, Pacific Northwest Ballet and Orchestra Seattle/Seattle Chamber Singers, and made his debuts with the Wichita Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, Illinois  Philharmonic Orchestra, South Bend Symphony Orchestra and Roosevelt Contemporary Ensemble. This season he returns to Seattle Symphony, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Boca Raton Symphonia, and makes his debut with Philharmonie Südwestfalen. Dr Waseem Kotoub, a British national of Lebanese origin, enthralled the audience with his skill and dexterity over piano. Every one enjoyed his mastery as he received warm accolades from the guests during the intermission. Dr Waseem is a professional pianist that has a high sensitivity and deep understanding in his piano playing. He was born in the UK and received most of his musical education from Vladimir Zaretisky. He has already gained a solid pianistic experience and was awarded a scholarship from Said Foundation to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Diana Ketler and Colin Stone which he graduated from with merit and got his PGdip in piano performance and the LRAM in music teaching. Dr Waseem has participated in several master classes with eminent musicians such as Imre Rohman, Christopher Elton, Victor Bunin, Paskal Nimorofski and Petras Guiniasis. As a special prize winner of IBLA piano competition in Italy, first prize winner of Said Foundation Achievement Award he has been playing with several orchestras such as Brandenburg National Youth Orchestra, Syrian National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of many conductors such as Solhi al-Wadi, Ahmad al-Saiedi (director of Egyptian opera house), and Sebastian Wiegle. The concert started with Mephisto Waltz No.1, S. 110/ 2 by Franz Liszt. The composition was played for 11 minutes. Then the orchestra performed Franz’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in A Major, S.125. There were four other compositions. Adagio sostenuto assai – Allegro agitato assai was played for seven minutes; Allegro moderato for eight minutes; Allegro deciso – Marziale un poco meno allegro for seven minutes and Allegro animato for two minutes. Franz Liszt (1811–1886), one of the most impressive figures in all of music history, was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, music teacher, and organist of the Romantic era. He was also a writer, a philanthropist, a Hungarian nationalist and a Franciscan tertiary. The second half of the orchestra concert included compositions of Johann Strauss (1825-1899), Franz Lehár (1870 – 1948), Josef Strauss (1827 – 1870), Emmerich Kálmán (1882 – 1953), and Johann Strauss, Jr. (1825 – 1899). The compositions of Johann Strauss were namely: Fledermaus: Overture (1874) for nine minutes; Pleasure Train Polka (1864), Op. 281 for three minutes; Persian March, Op. 289 for two minutes; Thunder and Lightning Polka, Op. 324 (1868) for three minutes. The other compositions were: Merry Widow: Ballsirenen Walt by Franz Lehár; Feuerfest (Fireproof)! Polka-Francaise, Op. 269 by Josef Strauss; Countess Maritza, Overture by Emmerich Kálmán; and Bauern-Polka Op. 276 by Johann Strauss, Jr.

The musical sensation Sonu Nigham did not let the high spirits of a huge crowd get dampened by rain and winds while the Indian singer performed at an open arena recently. The amphitheater in Asian Town witnessed a huge gathering, mainly expatriates from South Asian countries who thoroughly enjoyed the melodious songs by the celebrated Bollywood playback singer. It was unfortunate that intermittent rain with chilly winds kept interrupting the concert that was overwhelmingly received by the audience in the beginning. Overall, the weather conditions did not have much of an effect on the show as the enthusiastic audience continued enjoying the music till the end of the show. The event was organised by Q-Tickets under the aegis of Qatar National Tourism Council as part of Shop Qatar 2020. Besides the musical show, the families and children seemed to enjoy the traditional food offered at multiple outlets set up outside the arena. “I knew there was going to be rain. We noticed the weather forecast. Despite that fact, I along with my family decided to attend the concert as we are huge fans of Sonu. I grew up listening to his romantic songs in the 1990s. It has been a long time that the singer has successfully been entertaining the music lovers in India,” said Sandeep Chaudhry who was present along with his wife and two kids. Arthi Himraj, who was excited to listen to Sonu live with her family and friends, was not much bothered about the cold night. “Both rain and Sonu are rare in Doha. We are enjoying both. We are concerned about the kids but the rain is not heavy. Of course, we could have been enjoying more, if there had been no rain.” Even the 47-year-old Sonu Nigam himself appreciated the spirit and love of the audience for the music. “It is cold out here. Yet, there is this huge crowd. I am humbled to see how much people love Bollywood music.” The singer started with some of his new songs that have featured in recent Bollywood movies. He also sang his most popular songs. Majority of his songs were sung by the audience along with the singer. Prior to the concert in a press conference, the singer said that he enjoyed the project which he was part of and recalled that he had been coming to Doha since 1995 and would love to sing in Arabic if he got the right opportunity. Nigam was awarded ‘Best Playback Male Singer’ in Annual Central European Bollywood Awards, India for his songs, Kurbaan (2010) and Main Agar Kahoon (2009).  Furthermore, he received the Apsara Film Producers Guild Awards as ‘Best Playback Singer’ in 2003 for his all-time famous song, Kal Ho Naa Ho.  In 2012, he reaped another recognition for his song, Abhi Mujhe Mein Kahin (Agneepath). The music maestro was also the ‘Best Singer’ for Dill Mill Gayye Indian Television Academy Awards in 2017. He was honoured as ‘The Lord of the Chords’ by The Times of India and awarded as the Best Playback Singer of National Film Awards for his song Kal Ho Naa Ho once again. The top 10 famous songs by Nigam are: Kal Ho Naa Ho, Abhi Mujh Mein Kahin, Kismat Se Tum Hum Ko Mile, Ke Ghar Ab Aaoge - Sandese Aate Hain, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, Aye Dil Mat Ro, Suraj Hua Maddham, Dard Song, Saathiya, Pehli Pehli Baar Baliye. Sonu Nigam was born on July 30, 1973 in the city of Faridabad, Haryana. His father was from Agra and his mother was from Garhwal. His sister Teesha Nigam is also a professional singer. Nigam began his singing career at the age of four, when he joined his father Agam Kumar Nigam on stage to sing Mohammed Rafi’s song Kya Hua Tera Wada. 

The special fireworks show that lights up the skies of Corniche to mark the Qatar National Day every year is not an event to be missed. “Fireworks are actually like painting the sky with colours, smoke and sound. Fireworks inspire and enchant many people. The starry art in the night sky launching from land or water is always unique. It is crucial to choose a professional partner, for a major fireworks project, who works innovatively, creatively and safely,” underlines Dr F Samadian, CEO, Swiss Events Group, whose company has been behind the exotically colourful fireworks show on every national day. The Swiss man, whose team has been lightening up the Qatar skies for three years, recently spoke to Community about his expertise and future plans. Dr Samadian, who is called Dr Sam by his friends, carries a PhD in structure engineering from UK. “Initially, I got involved in different sorts of temporary structures. I have been working in Qatar for 11 years. My two sons are going to university.” The Swiss fireworks factory in Lucerne is in the heart of Switzerland. “For 40 years, our factory has dedicated itself exclusively to the subject of fireworks and thanks to successful participation in firework competitions, we enjoy an excellent reputation worldwide. From conception until clean up at the end of the show, our people work with sheer passion. That is the reason that we have been successfully carrying out fireworks in Qatar for three years. Months-long preparation is required behind the 10-minute-long fire show every December 18. We have a master worker who has been working in the industry for over 45 years. No two fireworks that we do are similar. “Being a Swiss company, the base of our products is only quality. We have very good designers and we also take real care of safety.” The Swiss man is actually fond of Qatar. “I see Qatar as my second home, a home away from home. I spend over 80 percent of time in Qatar. My company is also in the business of event management. When I see hundreds of thousands see my firework and enjoy it, I feel encouraged and love to do it again. You need to have a passion and feeling to it. You need to love what you are doing. I try to give my best to it. For me, it is like illuminating my house at night. “We work very hard on designs, colour schemes and the occasion we are doing the firework. We have to be occasion-specific.” When asked why fireworks are so mesmerising, Dr Sam said: “The sudden, bright and moving sparks that the fireworks emit are compelling to watch and seem mysterious because we are not used to that type of light travelling directly into our eyes. In general, the colours we see are created by light bouncing off the reflective surfaces of objects around us. As we encounter this reflected light all the time, we have become very good at unscrambling the colours in our brain and, as a result, anything different can seem otherworldly. This could be why other sources of moving light, like shooting stars and fireflies, are also thought of as magical. “Firecrackers have been around for hundreds of years. They consist of either black powder (also known as gunpowder) or flash powder in a tight paper tube with a fuse to light the powder. Black powder contains charcoal, sulfur and potassium nitrate. A composition used in a firecracker might have aluminum instead of or in addition to charcoal in order to brighten the explosion. “It is very common for fireworks to contain aluminum, iron, steel, zinc or magnesium dust in order to create bright, shimmering sparks. The metal flakes heat up until they are incandescent and shine brightly or, at a high enough temperature, actually burn. A variety of chemicals can be added to create colours.” Speaking about what safety measures his fireworks company takes, Dr Sam said: “We are dedicated to safety with uncompromising commitment. We work with NTi Audio Xl2 sound level meter as part of essential quality control. We ensure placing the highest priority on safety and compliance with the applicable regulations for fireworks. The class one XL2 sound level meter is ideal for ensuring this. In Switzerland, the legislation requires that a sound exposure level of 115db LAE must not be exceeded.” In response to a question about effect of firework displays on the climate change, Dr Sam said: “First of all, the quality of the material that we make is very special. We are not using plastics. We are using a type of dissolving material. Like the paper, it goes into water and it dissolves itself. We go more and more for the new technologies to have non-dangerous kind of fireworks. We are focusing on the materials that are less dangerous for our environment. “In Switzerland, we have the regulation that when it gets dry, we do not get permission for the fireworks. Obviously, we work together with the government in Qatar.” Dr Sam is upbeat about the future of the industry. “It has been happening (for) over hundred years. It will continue. At the factory, we have an innovation department. The department has always been coming out with new ideas and how we can make the fireworks more climate friendly. “Our passion is professional pyrotechnics –— public displays, sporting events, private events and proximate displays. Our goal is to safely merge technology and beauty with pyrotechnics.” 

Women in the music business of 2020 are, by some measures, better represented on the sales charts and at the impending Grammy Awards, according to an updated, broad-based study conducted by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. Few, however, are likely to frame the latest statistics as good news in light of how overwhelmingly female artists remain at a disadvantage on the pop sales charts and on Grammy night, which arrives again Sunday. The third edition of the study, spearheaded by USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative founder Stacy L Smith, was announced the other day, revealing that for 2020, the percentage of female nominees in five of the highest-profile Grammy categories has hit an eight-year high, accounting for nearly 21% of all nominations in those fields. That’s a striking increase from the second edition of the study published just two years ago. That survey found that barely more than 9% of those nominations went to women. Yet the latest number still demonstrates that four out of five Grammy nominees in those categories — record, album, song, new artist and non-classical producer — are male. “If you look across all the data for performers, songwriters, producers and Grammys, you see an uptick,” Smith told The Times. “It’s small, and that’s the problem. But typically, with our work in film and television, you don’t see indicators across multiple areas move in the same direction like this. Within two short years, we’re starting to see some changes.” The Grammy nomination results are also largely in sync with what the study found in examining gender breakdown of the 100 top songs each year from 2012 through 2019: 22.5% were by female artists, 77.5% by males, a 3.6-to-1 imbalance. When the 2018 edition of the study came out just ahead of the 60th Grammy Awards, it provided a backdrop for what turned into a #GrammysSoMale protest campaign on social media after male winners dramatically outnumbered females, especially in the prime-time TV portion of the ceremony. Just one solo female musician — new artist winner Alessia Cara — was presented with a Grammy on camera that year. It also fuelled the controversy over the Recording Academy’s then-President and Chief Executive Neil Portnow’s comment backstage after the awards that it was time for women to “step up” to achieve parity with men. It likewise figured prominently in the recently concluded work of an 18-person task force charged with examining gender and racial biases in the music business and within the Recording Academy itself. One member of that task force was pop star Selena Gomez. “Almost a year ago, I joined onto the initiative from the Recording Academy’s Diversity and Inclusion Task Force to create opportunities for females in the music industry,” Gomez, 27, said in the same statement. “While recording my new album (Rare), I wanted to ensure there were women involved in the creative process. I feel proud that women were essential collaborators on every song whether as a songwriter, producer, or engineer. It’s a start, but there is much work to be done to amplify women’s voices in our business.” Smith lauded what she referred to as “the Selena effect.” “Selena’s quote is so important,” Smith said. “You treat every song as a decision. We could dramatically change (what the latest study found) if just 10 artists ensured that at least one individual in all those roles was a woman. We could see a major shift by next year.” There also were signs of relative success for female musicians of colour in the finding. In 2019, artists from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups constituted more than half (56.1%) of the top 100 records, notably above the eight-year average of 45.4%. “For the last three years, the majority of artists on the Hot 100 year-end Billboard charts were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups,” the study found. “For women of colour, 2018 was an eight-year high (73%). Fully half or more female artists were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups in 2016 (54%), 2017 (50%), 2018 (73%) and 2019 (55%).” In the Grammy Awards arena, females have fared best as new artist and song of the year contenders, averaging 36.9% and 24.6% of nominations over eight years studied. Come Sunday, 44.4% of the song of the year nominees are women, and 46.2% of new artist contenders are female. By contrast, the averages for female nominations within the record of the year (which recognises vocal performance, production and engineering) and album of the year categories, 8.2% have gone to females since 2012, and just 2.5% for producer of the year, in the form of a single nomination in 2019 for producer Linda Perry. Looking more broadly to the recordings that have fared best on the Billboard Hot 100, the numbers become significantly more skewed: Last year just 14.4% of the 3,874 songwriters responsible for the most popular 800 songs over the study’s eight-year span were women, a statistically insignificant blip above the eight-year average of 12.5%. That figure has remained nearly static over time: in 2012, 11% of songwriters who crafted the top 100 songs that year were female. At the same time, the study found that, as Smith noted, the most prolific and successful male songwriters hold inordinate sway over pop music. “Eleven men were responsible for writing 23% of the songs that appear in our (hit song) sample,” she said. “Eleven men are setting the norm for lyrics in the 800 most popular songs. That’s astounding. To really understand the perspectives of people from a variety of different backgrounds, it’s so important to get artists to bring new voices to the table.” On that point, there’s been an upward trend for female songwriters of colour: “A linear trend emerged depicting a steady increase of female songwriters from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups from 2012 (14 credited women of colour) to 2019 (44 credited women of colour),” the study said. The percentage overall for white female songwriters fluctuated slightly over those eight years but remained relatively steady in the low 30th percentiles of total female songwriters. The disparity in the world of record production is even more staggering: 5% of 2019’s top 100 recordings were produced by a woman; the eight-year average is 2.6% women to 97.4% men. “The music industry has virtually erased female producers, particularly women of colour, from the popular charts,” Smith said. “As producers fill a leading creative role, it’s essential to ensure that women from all backgrounds are being considered and hired throughout the industry. Moreover, the industry itself must continue to expand its commitment to representing the voices and talent of women in all aspects of the business.”  — Los Angeles Times/TNS

Though the calendar reads 2020 we’re still waiting for the future promised in 2001. Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film, created concurrently with Arthur C Clarke’s novel, is recognised as one of the most influential motion pictures ever made, endlessly scrutinised from both a story and production point of view. Both avenues are open to New Yorkers and visiting tourists from tomorrow through 19 July at the Museum of the Moving Image adjacent to the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens. Envisioning 2001: Stanley Kubrick’s Space Odyssey is an in-depth examination of how the New York-born director’s desire to make “the proverbial ‘really good’ science fiction film” (as Kubrick wrote to Clarke in a letter preserved under glass in the exhibit) led to “the ultimate trip”, as MGM’s marketing department called the movie once young people seized upon the heady, ambiguous film that exploded into sound and light to go “beyond the infinite” in its most notable sequence. That section of the movie — the stargate scene — is what greets you as you climb the stairs to the museum’s third floor. There are also smaller screens offering clips from films that directly influenced Kubrick when he was dreaming of the future. To the Moon and Beyond, created for the 1964 World’s Fair, sits beside the George Pal-produced Destination Moon. Jordan Belson’s experimental shorts and the Soviet-influenced Czech masterpiece Ikarie-XB1 flank the National Film Board of Canada’s 1960 short Universe, narrated by future voice of HAL 9000, Douglas Rain. During the press preview, Kubrick’s eldest daughter, Katharina, said “teenage boys made that movie a success”, as she detailed the initial critical drubbing her father’s vision of tomorrow faced on release, and how counting the walkouts with a clicker during the premiere left the director “feeling depressed”. When she heard a radio DJ call it “groovy”, she knew it might catch on. “Today,” she continued, “young people are very enthusiastic about the film. It’s Goat [greatest of all time], or whatever it is,” she joked, mentioning its frequent revivals and the recent Christopher Nolan-led “unrestored” release. Her father’s exhaustive research is made wonderfully evident in the exhibit with large amounts of correspondence on show, awaiting a deep dive. No detail in the finished film wasn’t thoroughly discussed between the production team and groups like the Rand Corporation or Ordway Research. One can also inspect the deals with groups like Hilton Hotels or Parker Pens because even an arthouse masterpiece from the 1960s made room for spon-con. The model ships, drawings, sketches, costume tests, helmets, props, walls of index cards and apeman suits are what one expects from an exhibit like this, but what grabbed me most was a special section dedicated to the stargate sequence. I’ve read about Douglas Trumbull’s creative use of the split-scan technique (which the twentysomething tinkerer essentially invented on the fly) but I’ve never quite understood it before. Seeing the enormous schematics and large-format photos finally brought that home. Not that I’d ever let go of the suspension of disbelief. With the eerie György Ligeti music piped in (and, elsewhere, Aram Khachaturian and Strausses both Richard and Johann) one is quickly reminded that all this behind-the-scenes magic wouldn’t mean much without the ideas Kubrick and Clarke dreamed up. “It doesn’t tell you what to think,” Katharina Kubrick says of the film, the first of her father’s works she was old enough to see on its release. (“I certainly wasn’t allowed to see Lolita,” she joked.) “Who you are is how you receive it,” she continued, adding that her father remained a “proud Bronx boy” who would receive VHS tapes of New York football and baseball games from his sister when the family lived in England. The film’s New York roots are a point of pride for the museum. Kubrick and Clarke’s first meeting was held at the long-gone midtown bar Trader Vic’s. Clarke, already living in Colombo in modern-day Sri Lanka, was in town to work on Time-Life Library’s Man and Space. The pair talked through the story in Kubrick’s frenetic apartment with three energetic young daughters on Lexington Avenue, his office on Central Park West and on walks between the two. When physical production moved to Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, Clarke stayed on at Manhattan’s Chelsea Hotel to work on the novel. 2001: A Space Odyssey was the first film the Museum of Moving Image programmed after its rather Kubrickian remodelling job in 2011. (The architect Thomas Leeser admitted to the movie’s influence, according to opening remarks at the press event.) The film has screened 46 times to packed houses at the museum since 2011, one of the few spots left in New York with exquisite 70mm projection. The new exhibit comes to New York after a successful run at the Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum in Frankfurt. It represents all of the 2001 elements (with “amplification”) from a larger Stanley Kubrick show that toured London, Los Angeles and numerous other cities. With six months of Envisioning 2001 in the upstairs gallery, many special guests like Douglas Trumbull, 2001 actors Keir Dullea and Dan Richter and the director of the Carl Sagan Institute, Lisa Kaltenegger, are booked for accompanying film screenings. In addition to 2001 on both 70mm and digital, programmes include films that inspired Kubrick, were influenced by 2001 or are notable “outer space speculators”. From now until July, Queens, New York is the ultimate trip. — The Guardian

They are back – a powerful reunion. Junoon, the most sought after rock band from Pakistan, has already been making headlines following the reunification in 2018. Feeling fresh following their reunion, Junoon is once again bringing their nostalgic and jingoistic gig to Doha once again on January 30. The music show will take place at Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) at 7:30pm. The reunified force of Ali Azmat, vocalist, Salman Ahmad, guitarist, and Brian O’Connell, bassist, will shake the audience with their non-stop act of chants and anthems, which we all have been hearkening at for the past couple of decades. Rahmodus, an events company, is presenting PK Music Fest, Season-II under the fourth edition of Shop Qatar sponsored by Qatar National Tourism Council, Qatar Airways, Mondrian Doha and supported by Q-Tickets. Tickets are priced at QR500 (premium), 350 (fan zone), 100 (silver) and 60 (bronze). The tickets can be bought now at www.q-tickets.com After the success of last year’s event with Strings, another popular pop music band from Pakistan, Qatar National Tourism Council and Qatar Airways have sponsored the music show to bring Junoon in Doha. This is going to be second performance by the music band as they first entertained the residents of Doha in 2003. Junoon, meaning obsession or passion, is a Sufi rock band from Lahore, and Tappan, New York, formed in 1990. The band is directed by founder, lead guitarist and songwriter, Salman Ahmad, who was soon joined by keyboardist Nusrat Hussain, bass guitarist Brian O’Connell and vocalist Ali Azmat. Junoon is Pakistan’s and one of South Asia’s most successful bands; the Q magazine regarded them as ‘One of the biggest bands in the world’ and The New York Times called Junoon ‘the U2 of Pakistan’. Since their inception, the group has released a collective total of 19 albums: seven studio albums; one soundtrack; two live albums; four video albums; and five compilations. They have sold over 30 million copies worldwide. Pioneers of Sufi rock with an original sound, they achieved success during the early 1990s. Its members were signed to major record label EMI Records and afterwards released their self-titled debut album Junoon in 1991. After two years, the band recorded their second album Talaash (1993) with their new bassist Brian O’Connell after Nusrat Hussain left the band. The release of their second album began to create a cult following for the band. In 1996, Junoon released their third album Inquilaab, and it was only then that Junoon developed a nationwide fan following, with blending rock guitars and bluesy vocals with eastern elements like the use of tablas, raga-inspired melodies, traditional Pakistani folk music, and eastern-inspired poetry. The following year, the band recorded the critically acclaimed Azadi (1997), being the band’s first international record deal, and making it Junoon’s debut album in neighbouring India. The band went on to record and release Parvaaz in 1999. The band found renewed success and popularity starting with 2001’s Andaz and through 2003’s Dewaar and their supporting tours. Junoon celebrated their 25th anniversary  by releasing their eighth studio album titled Door in 2016. Salman, writer of most of the band’s lyrics and music scores, says that he gets most of his inspiration for Junoon’s songs from Led Zeppelin, English rock band, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, late Pakistani singer. Songs like Lal Meri Pat (from Azadi), Dharti (from Andaz) and Mera Mahi (from Inquilaab) are some examples of this influence. Another great influence of the band was poetry. The lyrics for the song Khwaab was taken from a poem called khwaab hakikat na sahi by a poet named Faiza Fiza. Junoon won the ‘Best International Group’ award at the Channel V Awards in New Delhi in 1998, beating Prodigy, Sting and Def Leppard. The band’s first international release Azadi, went triple platinum in India alone. Sayonee was at the top of the MTV India and Channel V charts for over two months. Junoon won the Award for ‘Best Rock Band’ at the Indus Music awards in 2004 and from ARY Asian/Bollywood Awards. Junoon has also been awarded several awards for their contribution towards peace and South East culture by BBC, Unesco and South Asian Journalists Association. Junoon was nominated for Best Musical Group at the Lux Style Awards several years in a row. On 25 December 2018, Junoon including Ali Azmat, Salman Ahmad and Brian O Connell reunited after 13 years to a sold-out concert in Karachi, Pakistan at the Moin Khan Academy.

“Artistry of that kind is rare in pianists of any age; to find it in a 20-year old is simply astounding, these were the words used to describe now 22-year old Eric Lu by The Daily Telegraph in September 2018. The astounding artistry was well received and appreciated by the audience during Lu’s performance in a recent orchestral concert conducted by Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (QPO) at Qatar National Convention Center. The pianist received well-deserved standing ovation at the end of the concert. Lu is rapidly building an international reputation as a young pianist with enormous promise and a distinctive musical voice. A native of the Boston, Massachusetts area, Lu is the first prize winner of the 2015 US National Chopin Competition in Miami, where he also received ‘The Best Concerto Prize’. In October 2015, at 17 years old, Eric won the 4th prize at the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Competition in Warsaw, becoming one of the youngest laureates in the history of the competition. Lu was born to immigrant parents from Kaohsiung (Taiwan) and Shanghai. He grew up in Bedford, Massachusetts He started piano studies at the age of 6 with Dorothy Shi, a well-known piano teacher. While at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, he studied piano with Alexander Korsantia, and A Ramon Rivera. In 2013, Lu entered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Profs Robert McDonald and Jonathan Biss. He is also a pupil of pianist Dang Thai Son. Lu won the first prize at The Leeds International Piano Competition in 2018 and made his BBC Proms debut with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Long Yu in summer 2019. He is currently a member of the BBC New Generation Artist scheme. The music in general and piano in particular has become the entire life of Lu, who during the conversation with Community spoke about his love for the instrument and music. “It has become my entire life. I will just say that music has endless possibilities. It is extremely difficult at the same time. It requires lifetime and constant work. You cannot really take a break. But, it is all worth when you go on stage and share the music with people. “I am very happy with the warm response I got from the audience in Doha. They were simply fantastic. It was my third performance in Qatar. I really feel like a part of this community. I really enjoy coming here every time.” The love and inclination for piano came to Lu from the family. “I followed my sister. She is three year older than I am. She learnt piano and I saw some of her lessons and I also started learning how to play the instrument. Surely, it is one of the most popular instruments for kids to learn. It has endless possibilities. So I got attracted towards piano in particular.” In his journey of learning and mastering the instrument, Lu is all praise for his what he calls extraordinary teachers. “I was very lucky to have tremendous teachers throughout my life from the basic techniques throughout the middle school and the music institute. I studied with two best teachers there. I can talk for hours about their contributions and how grateful I am to them. “In recent years, I have been lucky also to meet some extraordinary musicians. They have also helped me a lot. They understand what it is like to be [a musician] and to start a career. It is very difficult. I am thankful that they were very generous in helping me out.” Lu got interested in the western classical music in the very beginning. “I started with the fundamentals of the western classical music. I did not play anything else. For Lu, piano is like everything in his life. “I have my family and close friends in life also but piano seem to be my whole life. Since I have won some competitions and my career is making upward progress in last three years, It has become really time consuming. I have to board a plane and fly around the globe to attend concerts. I rarely find time to see people. It has become challenging but this is what I wanted. Piano is almost always there. If I do not touch for a day, it feels very strange to me.” The pianist played a symphony of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and that received overwhelming response.  Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. “His work is very romantic. It is outpouring and it is very beautiful music. At the same time it is very difficult. The music is very busy for piano. It has specific Russian style. It is very different form the very classical music from Germany, Austria and other European countries. His music is very free. There is beauty of sound. I find there is very romantic and blushed beauty. It is fun to play Tchaikovsky.” Young Lu loves the idea of continue playing piano. “As far as my future plans with piano go, I hope to continue the path I have been on. I want myself to be able to play more concerts at more venues and for more orchestras. I try and want to be the best possible pianist I can be. I look up to so many master pianists who are just like deity for me. I want to reach that level one day. I want to have a wonderful time ahead.”

It was a befitting start for Qatar-France 2020 Year of Culture as classical French music, curative piano sounds in particular, spellbound a large audience at Katara Opera House, where Qatari dignitaries, ambassadors, diplomats were in attendance with their families. The opening event of the cultural year set the tone for the year-long activities that include exhibitions of art works by legends including Pablo Picasso, classic French movies, music performances, and French food festivals. The ‘Opening Concert of Qatar-France 2020 Year of Culture,’ presented by Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (QPO), was aptly conducted by Marc Piollet, one of the most exciting and versatile conductors of his generation. Iconic French pianist Lise De La Salle mesmerised the lovers of orchestral music as she duly earned the appreciation and applause from the huge gathering. The programme included Camille Saint-Saëns’s composition Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 22 –  Andante sostenuto Allegro scherzando Presto. The work of Haamed Hussein Naama from Doha Secrets Symphony that was played at the concert included Fourth Movement. Hector Berlioz’s Symphony Fantastique, Op. 14 R’veries, Passions A Ball Scene in the Country March to the Scaffold Dreams of a Witches’ Sabbath. The QPO musicians and the guest artistes entertained the audience that also included many musicians and classical music lovers for over two hours. A conspicuous among them was Klaus Heymann, Chairman of Naxos Group of Companies, that focuses on western classical music based in Hong Kong. He also runs Naxos Music Library, invaluable resource for universities, music schools, public libraries, schools, music professionals and collectors. Community got a chance in the break time to speak to Klaus, a German national, as Qatar National Library also has subscription to his music collection. “As a company, we focus on the western classical music. We have branches all over the world – all major music markets. We are well known all over the world holding a very good reputation. The Naxos Libel was started in 1987 and the music library was set up in 2002. We are actually the first company in the world to have had the streaming website in 1996.” Klaus, who grew up with western classical music, not listening to anything else, got married to a classical musician. “Our library is the first subscription streaming website in the history of our industry. The music library covers everything from early music to classical, romantic, contemporary and 20th century. We have the works of composers from all over the world even from Brazil and Australia. We have orchestra, symphony, chamber music, and solo. We have everything.” In response to a question on how the western classical music is trending, the music collector said, “Well, sales of certain products have declined. We are not selling as many CDs as we sold five years ago. It is however a fact that streaming is now a worldwide phenomenon. We have lot more listeners now from far more different countries. The Internet platforms have much bigger reach.” Talking about live concerts for classical music, he said, “Previously, if you would’ve wanted to listen to good music you would have to go to a concert. Nowadays, you can listen online. The orchestras nowadays have to offer more than just playing a concert. They need to go for introductions, they have talk to the audience and they have to make videos also. It has become a lot more challenging to attract audience. “As far as Qatar in concerned, there is only one orchestra, if you have to listen to the western classical music alive; you have to come to QPO. That is where the orchestra has a privileged position. We at the same time see a rise in live opera concerts. We see opera house in different Middle Eastern countries and in Africa.” As far the classical music itself, Klaus is upbeat about the future of the genre. “We see new composer coming up with new kind of compositions. We see composers even in countries like Qatar. The whole thing has become far more universal.”

The stage is set to formally inaugurate the France – Qatar Year of Culture 2020 today at Katara Opera House where concertgoers will cherish the classical western music. The cultural year will see exhibitions of art works by legends, including Pablo Picasso, classic French movies, music performances, and French food festivals. The opening event of the year-long activities is presented by Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (QPO) with the name of ‘Opening Concert of France – Qatar Year of Culture 2020.’ The concerts that expects classical western music lovers in great numbers will start at 7:30pm. The opera will be conducted by Marc Piollet and iconic Lise De La Salle will be at piano. The programme includes Camille Saint-Saëns’s composition Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 22 –  Andante sostenuto Allegro scherzando Presto. The work of Haamed Hussein Naama from Doha Secrets Symphony that will be played at the concert is Fourth Movement. Hector Berlioz’s Symphony Fantastique, Op. 14 R veries, Passions A Ball Scene in the Country March to the Scaffold Dreams of a Witches’ Sabbath. Conductor Marc Piollet studied at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. Masterclasses with John Eliot Gardiner, Michael Gielen and Kurt Masur had a formative influence on his musical development. After early posts as first Kapellmeister at the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Halle and the Staatstheater Kassel, he was music director of the Vienna Volksoper. From 2004 until 2012 he was general music director at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden. As guest conductor he has worked with leading opera houses including the Royal Opera in Copenhagen, the Bavarian State Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and the Vienna State Opera. Apart from his highly successful work as an opera conductor, Marc is in high demand also for the symphonic repertoire, appearing with orchestras worldwide including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic. In just a few years, through her international concert appearances and her award-winning Naïve recordings, Lise de la Salle has established a reputation as one of today’s most exciting young artistes, and as a musician of uncommon sensibility and maturity. Her playing inspired a Washington Post critic to write, “For much of the concert, the audience had to remember to breathe...the exhilaration didn’t let up for a second until her hands came off the keyboard.” A native of France, now living in Paris, de la Salle first came to international attention in 2005, at the age of 16, with a Bach/Liszt recording that was selected as ‘Recording of the Month’ by Gramophone Magazine. De la Salle, who records exclusively with the label Naïve, was then similarly recognised in 2008 for her recording of Liszt’s, Prokofiev’s and Shostakovich’s first concertos – a remarkable feat for someone only 20 years old.  Her most recent recording offers works of Schumann, including Kinderszenen and the C Major Fantasy, which was released in 2014. De la Salle has played with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors. She most recently made her London Symphony Orchestra debut with Fabio Luisi, who had invited her to become the first ‘Artist-in-Residence of the Zurich Opera’ in 2014. She has also appeared frequently with the Maestro and the Vienna Symphony, including a performance in New York on the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center. In America, de la Salle has played with the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony at the Ravinia Festival, San Francisco Symphony and three times with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, among others. During the 2014-2015 season, de la Salle was heard with Jiri Belohlavek and the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Mikhail Pletnev and the Russian National Orchestra, Philippe Auguin and the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra.  A sought-after recitalist, she has recently been presented to enthusiastic audiences and critics in major series in New York, Boston, Washington DC, San Francisco, Montreal, Toronto, and at the Philharmonie in Berlin, Wigmore Hall in London and the Louvre in Paris. She also takes pleasure in educational outreach and conducts master classes in many of the cities in which she performs. Composer Haamed Hussein Naama was born in 1949 in Qatar. He graduated in 1975 at the Higher Institute of Arabic Music in Cairo, continuing his higher education in music composition and orchestral distribution in the Philippines and a training course in orchestral direction in Great Britain. French composer and pianist, Camille Saint-Saëns, (1835-1921) was one of the most prolific composers of the second half of the nineteenth century. His operas, concertos, symphonies and chamber music marked the evolution of French music at the dawn of the twentieth century. Hector Berlioz, (1803-1869) the passionate, ardent, irrepressible genius of French Romanticism, left a rich and original oeuvre which exerted a profound influence on nineteenth century music.

What can get better than a healthy activity filled will colours and music? Nothing really! People of all ages are going to have a fun at The Color Run that returns to Doha this month on January 25 at Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC). Presented by Sahtak Awalan: Your Health First, the event offers the ‘Happiest 5k on the Planet’. In a five kilometre run, the participants will be sprinkled with bright and shiny colours. The Color Run is an initiative of Weill Cornell Medicine — Qatar and will take place from 7am to 12pm. The sixth edition returns under the theme of ‘Love Tour’ to celebrate the bond that ties people together, and to raise awareness on the health benefits of keeping an active lifestyle. It is a five-kilometre, untimed event. The runners are doused from head to toe in a different colour powders at each kilometre mark. The participants wear white at the starting line and finish the race plastered in popping hues. Once the 5k is over, the fun continues at the finish festival: a larger-than-life party equipped with music, dancing, photo opportunities, activity booths, vendors, and more massive colour throws. The vivid colour combinations give runners the best post-run party on the planet. The event is free for ‘Little Color Runners’ (aged 4 and under) without participant pack. ‘Little Color Runners’ (aged 4 and under) with participant pack will cost QR55 for one child. ‘Regular Color Runner’ is for QR170. ‘Deluxe Color Runner’ is for QR280. The participants will also get their packs at the Color Run. The first pack is ‘2020 Limited Edition Love Tour Little Color Runner Participant Pack’. It will include a love T-shirt, headband, re-usable bag, medal at the finish line, sun tattoo, badge, bib, welcome card, sponsor goodies, and colour packet at the finish line. The ‘Regular Participant Pack’ will have a love T-shirt, headband, re-usable bag, medal at the finish line, sun tattoo, badge, bib, welcome card, sponsor goodies and colour packet at the finish line. The ‘Deluxe Participant Pack’ contains deluxe parking, 2020 Limited Edition Love Tour glasses, socks, bracelet and bandana, love T-shirt, headband, reusable bag, medal at the finish line, sun tattoo, badge, bib, welcome card, sponsor goodies, and colour packet at the finish line. Christian Moufarrej, Event Director of The Color Run presented by Sahtak Awalan: Your Health First, spoke to Community about how successful the event has been so far in Doha. When asked how successful the previous five Color Run events held in Doha were, the organiser said: “We have seen the The Color Run presented by Sahtak Awalan: Your Health First grow in numbers of participants each year. Last year we had a massive turnout of over 10,000 participants, and we are expecting the sixth edition this year to be even bigger with more people attending and participating. The Color Run is a great way for people to spend time with their families and friends having fun in a way that is beneficial for their health and wellbeing.” Asked if there is anything new that the Color Run will be offering the runners this year, Christian said, “The Color Run is always bringing something new every year and this year is no exception. The theme for this year is ‘Love Tour.’ It is all about spreading love and good vibes, and creating awareness about the benefits of keeping fit. “With this year’s edition promising to be bigger than all our previous ones, participants can expect more colours, more fun, and limited-edition items in their participant packs. The post 5k party is going to be one of the best colourful parties to be hosted so far.” The organiser has a word of advice for the participants to that they can make the most of it. “The Color Run is not a timed competition. Everyone can choose to run, walk, skip or jog throughout the 5km distance, and everyone can celebrate their achievements with prizes, music, photo opportunities, and myriads of unforgettable moments at the finish line, along with a medal. Bring your family and friends and try this one-of-a-kind experience.”

In the plethora of drama serials on air every year, it’s quite strenuous to get your work noticed. Sometimes the anger roars. Other times it seethes. It can be silent or eloquent, mighty or impotent, righteous or nasty. Or almost invisible. Whatever goes into a performance — talent, grit, wit, strength, inspiration, exhaustion, luck — was part of actors’ performance that was seen and appreciated by masses this year. Much great acting takes place in drama serials that actually aren’t all that good, in terms of budget I mean. Over the period of time Pakistan entertainment industry has realised that it’s not the star power that brings the good rating and fame to any serial but the substantial content and characters. Where unconventional characters and storylines are gaining popularity for their relativeness with the audiences, there is so much feeling that needs a story right now, when all kinds of people are mad — in real life and in the movies — for all kinds of reasons. Some of those people are played by the 8 actors selected for this year’s Ruling the Television Screens piece, especially by the women. When we finished with our list, we noticed that women out numbered men. We thought about adjusting the balance but decided not to. Female anger is a potent political, social and creative force nowadays. The portrayal of a strong lead female character rather than any damsel in distress is carving out a frame for actors to showcase more of their versatility, and perhaps our critical antennas picked up on that. Pakistan entertainment industry is well on its way and there’s quite a reason to expect progress in the years to come: Hira Mani, one of five women to make our top 8, was relatively less known just last year. It’s time to show some love for the scads of performances that you’ll be sorry to have had missed, if you have. Here’s a selection of the very best. Imran Ashraf in Ranjha Ranjha Kardi Imran Ashraf really is defining acting prowess with unconventional roles in the real sense of the world. His character Bhola in Ranjha Ranjha Kardi hit home for many, and created awareness about mental health. Imran has raised awareness around disorders like ASD, ADHD and Asperger’s Syndrome via Bhola.  Normally, when Imran’s character loses it, it’s because he’s right in a world that’s wrong, and the anger is meant to identify and then destroy the injustice. Imran is at his critical best when the serial needs his face to do what a screenplay can’t. His expression — a rictus of embarrassment, confusion and guilt — belongs in a gallery. It’s a masterpiece of confusion, comedy and a social satire.  Ahad Raza Mir in Ehd-e-Wafa and Yeh Dil Mera Ahad is a very fine addition to the entertainment fraternity. We’ve seen him put his acting skills well to use and make audiences sway with him. If you feel like you’ve been seeing a lot of Ahad Raza Mir lately, you’re not wrong: The pro actor released his two drama serials in three months – Ehd-e-Wafa and Yeh Dil Mera. Ahad is wonderfully terrifying in Yeh Dil Mera – a boy-next-door with quite nothing to lose attitude, his unrelenting pursuit of the leading lady as the actor is slowly but surely is unravelling his character’s motivations. Ahad plays it close to the vest throughout, making his reveal and scenes all the more powerful one after another. Sajal Aly in Alif and Yeh Dil Mera The truth of the matter is that Sajal Aly could make the list of great performers in just about any year, for just about any role. She is always interesting, never not surprising and consistently unnerving, even if the serial falls short – and that’s a big ‘if’ because that’s a rarity. For the previous at least half a decade, except a movie she did in 2016, Zindagi Kitni Haseen Hai, there’s no project of hers that have gone unnoticed by the viewers and masses at large. In 2018, her most-heralded work on television was O Rangreza where she played a blithe girl full of life. The zone where normalcy collides with extremity — where high comedy and psychological terror keep company — is her sweet spot. What makes her work this year in Alif and Yeh Dil Mera, both on-air simultaneously, even more astonishing is that she brought that sweet spot with her, infusing those drama serials with an element of vitality they would otherwise have lacked. Both of them are hothouse blossoms, exercises in sensibility for directors with very particular agendas. Both characters are driven by the element of innocence at some point, and that’s how Sajal takes the wheel with her big shot eyes.  Ayeza Khan in Meray Paas Tum Ho. What to do with an actor in a type of role you dislike that’s the centrepiece of a drama you really care for. Well, if the acting works, you just ignore everything else. And Ayeza Khan’s acting in Meray Paas Tum Ho really works. You dislike the character so much that you want other characters in the serial to do well in terms of storyline. Ayeza Khan not only deserves an applause and appreciation but some awards as well for signing on to a role like Mehwish in Meray Paas Tum Ho. The actress who is usually seen either as a damsel in distress in dramas or the manipulative kind have shattered all our pre-conceived notions by playing this character. Ayeza paid meticulous attention to detail by nailing each and every expression and dialogue, making us hate Mehwish for her ruthlessness. If that’s not extraordinary then what is? Sana Javed in Ruswai In Ruswai, Sana plays a girl who despite being helpless does not submit to her family’s pressure and stands her ground. She is a victim of harassment who is first betrayed by her father and then her fiancé but she goes on to stand her ground. It’s the sort of bound-for-tragedy part that barely needs an actor. It practically performs itself. And yet, many actors have given it and had many a statuette thrown at them for doing so. But as the story becomes about a woman’s dignity, Javed inhabits the horror of unsought valour. She makes the physical challenges secondary to the psychological ones. Sana has found a way to play a part that can only be described as charismatically unremarkable; except she doesn’t just play it, she disappears within it. The bombing in the serial happens sooner than you want it to. The minute you see the episode of her being dragged down by a group of thugs from her father’s hand, you start wondering about what’s going to happen to her, obviously. I worried about what would happen to Sana’s acting. She works here with remarkable restraint. The character struggles with pain and unceasing pity. The actor doesn’t appear to struggle with anything. She plays the shock of attention, the suffocating embarrassment of pity, and rage at how the harassment forces Sameera to take greater responsibility for her choices. Hira Mani in Do Bol The shot from Do Bol that probably pops into your head first — it was in the trailers and will no doubt feature in every award reel — is of Hira Mani in close-up, shrugging off Affan Waheed at a train station, her eyes squinted with disappointment and overflowing with tears. It’s a pivotal moment, for sure, both in the plot and in Hira’s performance: the big reveal and the first big emotional payoff. But it’s also a confirmation of the importance of those eyes to the structure and meaning of the film. They are perhaps its only reliable barometers of emotion, instruments of empathy and windows on the truth. Hira Mani practices a kind of naturalistic, Karachi mode of performance in Do Bol. It’s acting that’s more like being: She makes her way through the drama serial as she might go about her actual day. But rising above it is her performance, the garrulous, whirring, sweet-and-sour energy steals all her scenes. Hira has never seemed so relaxed and radiant on-screen — she takes a nothing role and gives it flesh and blood. Affan Waheed in Do Bol It has been apparent for more than half a decade — let’s say since Daastan which you may have forgotten had anyone else in it — that Affan Waheed can do anything. Even as a supporting actor, he clearly possessed lead-level discipline and versatility and also the kind of relentless, fearless, unshowy honesty most often associated with great actors like Waheed Murad. In Do Bol, Waheed proves he can do anything by doing something that may sound easy: playing an ordinary Pakistani middle-class man. ‘Ordinary’ is hardly fair, though. Badar in Do Bol is typical only by virtue of the circumstances over which he has no control. Affan is in no way exceptional and in every way unique — a marvellous impossibility that has rarely been captured with such a romance. Sanam Baloch in Khaas Part of the force in her performance in Khaas has to do with our long relationship with this star. We don’t know Sanam Baloch, but we do know ‘Sanam Baloch.’ And here she is in a new mode: a victim of emotional abuse but she is not the damsel in distress the masses adore. She is a strong, educated woman with resources, who is willing to compromise but has enough self-esteem to resist her narcissist husband’s attempts at manipulating and belittling her. Baloch uses her stardom some — that smile of hers is forced into a rictus of iffy optimism — but it’s more restrained. She has discovered new ways of doing fear and nervous confrontations, not for acting’s sake, but to serve the mounting desperation of her character.

Like a lot of actors, Jimmy Shergill faced a tough crowd when he moved on from the success of his debut film Maachis (1996) and took on more director-driven, cinephile-friendly projects. While he juggled the plain sailing demands of Aditya Chopra for Mohabbatein (2000) playing a boy next door and took a peculiar right turn in Rajkumar Hirani’s tongue-in-cheek Munna Bhai MBBS (2003) it was the Shoojit Sircar’s Yahaan (2005) that solidified Shergill’s remarkable evolution into one of the most exciting actors working today.  It is difficult to get noticed in the Hindi film industry, especially if you don’t bag a lead role in a mainstream film. Or if you don’t have a heavy surname behind your name and a production house to launch you. But going by the releases over the last decade and more, Bollywood is witnessing a change in its rulebook. The credit goes to the crop of actors who have time and again proved their mettle, not as heroes of the film, but as the powerful supporting or co-leads. Bollywood has seen an array of actors who have gone beyond performance benchmarks with their powerful work as supporting actors in a film led by commercial stars, and even gained critical acclaim at par with the leading actor for just a 20 minute performance in a two-hour long film. The fact that they are grabbing headlines by featuring in supporting roles also proves that Bollywood has come a long way in terms of writing in films. Filmmakers now are crafting each character of their film with as much thought, as they would put into creating a lead actor. In Munna Bhai MBBS, Sanjay Dutt is the film’s protagonist, but it’s the chemistry between him and the cancer patient Zaheer, played by Jimmy Shergill, that makes Munna Bhai really crack up. As the conventional duo, Shergill has equally harder job, as Sanjay scores most of the major laughs in the film. But Shergill is more than up to the task of supporting his explosive co-star, and it’s in the more thoughtful scenes between Zaheer and kindhearted regular Munna Bhai, where his heart comes through and he really shines. Supporting actors aren’t just those familiar faces who can steal a film. They show a way for movies to portray real life; forming the essence of details. It wouldn’t be erroneous to regard these supporting roles in the film as the salt of the earth, or the oil that makes the machine work. Jimmy Shergill for most of his career have been taking meaty roles, be it in supporting leads, to challenge himself as an actor and prove his acting ability time and again with the versatile roles he has been opting for.  Jimmy talks to Community in an exclusive interview as he is all set for his upcoming season Rangbaaz 2, a crime thriller series that is set against the rustic background of Rajasthan, releasing today on Zee 5 premier, as the protagonist of the web series.  “In cinema, a lot has changed over a period of time. However as an actor, in view of online streaming services, not much has changed because we’re shooting with the same camera and people for web series as we are for the cinema. People and technicians who have worked on web series are the same who have worked for the film in cinema. Apart from the fact that it felt like I was shooting for a four and a half hour long movie, about nine episodes in total, there wasn’t anything different,” says Shergill whilst drawing parallel for shooting for web series and commercial films. Since Rangbaaz 2 is a sequel to Rangbaaz, based on a true story of Shri Prakash Shukla, notorious and most wanted criminal/gangster of Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh India, with a different storyline though. Did Jimmy Shergill watch the prequel before signing the spin-off? “Yes obviously, that was one of the reasons why I went on-board for this project. The same team that did the first part is a part of this one, the writer, the director and everyone. However, the first one was based in UP and this one is based in Rajasthan. It’s another story – story of someone who wasn’t supposed to be in the crime world. A story of a topper who wants to do for the country but ends up being pushed into the crime world by the system. So, the second instalment of Rangbaaz features a story that people can probably relate to.” Doing a role of a terrorist in his debut film Maachis or an intense part in A Wednesday (2008) and then moving on to more cheeky roles in films like Mohabbatein, Mere Yar Ki Shaadi Hai (2002), and anti-hero in Tanu Weds Manu (2011) or Happy Bhaag Jayegi (2016) – Jimmy doesn’t seem to contain himself as an actor to a particular genre and type of roles. “I was consciously making an effort to make sure that I’m not slotted into one particular image or whatever. That was the reason why I pick-up films that were different,” says Jimmy. Jimmy has films like Tanu Weds Manu (both franchises), Happy Bhaag Jayegi, Mere Yar Ki Shaadi Hai and others to his credit, where the character he’s playing never quite gets the girl in the end. Jimmy laughs it off and comments, “I did not join the industry to win over girls. My win is the love of the audience. As far as I’m getting the love of the audience, it’s okay.” Sheirgill made his Punjabi film debut with Yaaran Naal Baharan in 2005. His notable work in Punjabi cinema include Mel Karade Rabba (2010), Dharti (2011), Aa Gaye Munde U.K. De (2014), Shareek (2015) and Daana Paani (2018). He is among those few actors who effortlessly blend into Punjabi films and then Bollywood in an instance. Drawing a parallel between both the industries, he says, “Bollywood has always been a full-fledged industry. When I started with Punjabi films, it was a struggling industry. People were not going into theatres to watch Punjabi films. We tried to make an effort from our end, being a Punjabi, from Punjab, to do Punjabi films and make people get out of their houses and go into theatres and start watching Punjabi films. It happened in around 2009, 2010 that box office of Punjabi films was recognised. Today I’m very happy that the Punjabi films are doing so well.”

What pop means changes depending on what angle you’re looking it from. It can be a descriptor of an audience size, indicating something that’s popular, or it can be a genre tag, specifying a sound. But for much of the last three decades, these two definitions have effectively been one and the same. You know the sort: Katy Perry’s confetti cheer, Justin Timberlake’s feather-light chirps, Lady Gaga’s exorbitant theatre, Taylor Swift’s guileless guile. Music that strives for lustre, energy, trance and a phenomenon. Often an expression of pallor, too — that transverse between calmness and something one can move a hip or two to. A one-size-fits-all solution. For a time, in the 1980s, this kind of pop music — think of Michael Jackson and Madonna — was effectively monoculture, which is why the two meanings of pop have been so tightly tethered, and so difficult to disentangle. But in the last couple of years, this framework has been almost completely dismantled, owing in large part to the widespread adoption of streaming and globalisation, nothing seems to be contained to a particular genre or a type, one cannot really tag it. What were once regarded merely as pop subgenres — K-pop, Latin trap, melodic hip-hop and more — have become the centre of the conversation today. Oh baby! It’s the breakout season of Maluma. In that hoopla of Latinx crowd that includes trap rapper Bad Bunny and the logo-loving singer J Balvin, Maluma, Latino Grammy award winner, stands out with his heavy swirling up-beat tracks, sensuality and risk-taking fashion smarts. Much like his gruff sound, the singer’s productions have its own distinct beat. Qatar Airways (QA) and Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC), recently launched Qatar Live — a series of music concerts and festivals taking place in Doha. As part of Maluma’s 11:11 World Tour and Qatar Live, the Latino singer made his Qatar debut backed by his band and group of dancers at Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre. Maluma has been making music since 2010, yet released in 2015, Pretty Boy, Dirty Boy is widely considered to be his breakthrough album. The singer went on to join Sony Music Latin in 2015 and has released three albums since. Every one of his albums has made it to the top 10 of the Billboard Latin charts. What’s more, he has worked on many featured projects with top artistes like the late XXXTentacion, Lil Pump, Shakira, and more recently Madonna, alongside whom he performed his collaborative single Medellín at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards. This isn’t the singer’s first world tour. In 2017, he sold over one million tickets for 105 shows bringing himself to be the top concert-selling Latin artist. Currently, the singer has in excess of 48 million Instagram followers, a total of 9 billion music video views, and more than 22.6 million subscribers on YouTube.  Futuristic theme charged with lasers, the concert was all about audiovisual effects and pyrotechnics presented in a way never seen before. Maluma has swag. Have you ever seen how the Colombian singer swivels his hips? It’s like a slow-mo tornado. And his slightly overgrown facial hair is the right amount of manicured, yet still raucous. And his fashion! Maluma has attitude, Maluma has style. He likes his clothes bright and bold, which goes quite nicely with his bright and bold music, personality, and overall demeanour. Consider it one more reason to be a fan.  Maluma flaunted one of the most polarising menswear accessories out there while performing. On anyone else, the leather pants look would be deeply dorky, yet Maluma radiated swagger as he paired it with exotic animalier clash print shirt and golden jacket. His crisp printed shirt unbuttoned to reveal a roaring tiger tattoo on his chest and dangling gold ‘lock’ pendant necklace, as he salsa-danced to the music and opened the show with his fans’ ever favourite soundtrack Chantaje featuring Shakira. His wardrobe change was followed with basic cargo shorts, boots and a T. Off and on paired with a neon orange P-cap. There wasn’t a beat out of place or a minute when fans weren’t sparky with hands in the air and swirling away movements beneath. A housefull of Latino music lovers and an absolute out-and-out way of welcoming winters in Doha. n For the last instalment of Qatar Live performances, Maroon 5 is scheduled to perform at DECC today, which will be followed by Daydream Festival featuring DJ’s including Afrojack, Jonas Blue, Lost Frequencies, Mark Knight, Matt Sochon and Steff Da Campo at The Ritz-Carlton, Doha’s Island tomorrow.