KARACHI: The 2022 Aga Khan Music Awards concluded with the presentation of awards to 15 laureates by His Highness Sayyid Bilarab bin Haitham Al Said and Prince Amyn Aga Khan during a gala concert at Royal Opera House Muscat’s House of Musical Arts.

The awards presentation marked the culmination of a spirited two-day celebration in which laureates performed live or were presented in short films. A special award for lifetime achievement was presented to acclaimed tabla player Ustad Zakir Hussain during the Music Awards’ opening night concert on 29 October.

This evening’s programme featured performances by Peni Candra Rini, an Indonesian composer, improviser, vocalist and educator; Yasamin Shahhosseini, an Iranian Oud player who is reimagining the place of the Oud in Iranian music; the Tehran-based Golshan Ensemble, which performs Iranian classical music; and Soumik Datta, a Sarod player from the United Kingdom who fuses his training in Hindustani classical music with pop, rock, electronica and film soundtracks to raise awareness about urgent social issues, including climate change, refugees and mental health.

Laureates of the 2022 Music Awards were selected by a Master Jury from a field of close to 400 nominees from 42 countries. They share $500,000 prize money and will have opportunities for professional development.

These opportunities include commissions for the creation of new works, contracts for recordings and artist management, support for pilot education initiatives, and technical or curatorial consultancies for music archiving, preservation and dissemination projects.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022