Two ghazal legends coming to Doha

In perhaps the biggest news of the year for Eastern classical music fans, two music legends from India are coming to Qatar for a grand concert next month.
Tabla maestro and Padma Bhushan Ustad Zakir Hussain with Padma Shri Hariharan are all set to enthral the ghazal fans with their music on December 8 at the Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC). The concert, titled Hazir, is being organised by Music Lounge Events.
Hazir has been a sell-out event all over the world. Now the residents of Qatar have the chance to watch this great collaboration of musicians live on stage.
“The event is set to be the finest of its class for lovers of ghazal and tabla,” Jaisen George, the Director of Music Lounge tells Community.
“Music Lounge Events is working hard to make Hazir Qatar a night to remember. The event has limited seating and the organisers advise the fans to take advantage of the early release of the tickets. The tickets will be available online at Q-Tickets.com,” he adds.
Ghazal, originating from ancient Arabic poetry long before Islam, is better understood as a poetic expression of love, pain or separation. Ghazal has spread throughout Africa, through the Arabian lands and into Asia as a cultural heritage that has been handed down in a passionate reflection of the past and the present.
Through the influence of the Sufi mystics and the Islamic Sultanates, ghazal has spread into Persia and the Indian subcontinent. Great names such as Rumi and Hafiz of Persia, the Azeri poet Fuzuli in the Ottoman Empire, Mirza Ghalib, Muhammad Iqbal and Kazi Nazrul Islam and numerous others in the subcontinent still resonate today.
Zakir Hussain, born to the legendary tabla player Alla Rakha, started as a tabla player and has become a music producer, film actor and composer.
He has been awarded a PhD in music from the University of Washington, the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan (the highest civilian award in India), Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the National Endowment for the Arts (the highest award given to traditional artist and musicians in US), along with multiple Grammy Awards.
Today he is appreciated in the field of percussion and in the music world at large as an international phenomenon. He is consistently brilliant and his exciting performances have not only established him as a national treasure in his own country, but also on the world stage as a great classical musician.
Hussain’s contribution to the world of music has been unique, with many historic collaborations, including Shakti, which he founded with John McLaughlin and L Shankar, Remember Shakti, the Diga Rhythm Band, Making Music, Planet Drum with Mickey Hart, Tabla Beat Science, and Sangam with Charles Lloyd and Eric Harland. He has recorded and performed with artists as diverse as George Harrison, Yo-Yo Ma, Joe Henderson, Van Morrison, Airto Moreira, Pharoah Sanders and many more.
He is accompanied by none other than one of the greatest ghazel and geet singers of modern times, Padma Shri Hariharan. He is a son of the renowned Carnatic vocalist, Alamelu and the late Anatha Subramani Iyer, and has inherited his parents’ musical talents and was exposed at an early age to Hindustani music.
But Hariharan was captivated by the passion of ghazal and inspired by the songs of Mehdi Hassan, and started to train under the illustrious Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan. Hariharan is today known in the world of Indian music as one of the greatest ghazal singers of all time.
Fluent in multiple languages (Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali and English), Hariharan truly has influenced all demographics in the Indian subcontinent. Touching hearts and minds of fans throughout the world for more than 40 years, Hariharan has earned his place on the list of music legends.
He has collaborated in multiple award-winning albums and live concerts with outstanding performers and bands such as AR Rahman, Yesudas, Strings, Ustad Rashid Mustafa, Ustad Liyaqat Ali Khan, Ustad Sultan Khan and many other award-winning musicians globally.