Islamabad - Kuch Khaas in collaboration with the US Embassy on Saturday evening commemorated Daniel Pearl World Music Days with an evening of poetry, and music at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA).
The event titled ‘Harmony for Humanity’, demonstrated the important role the arts play in promoting peace, tolerance, and mutual understanding.
The concert was part of the fourteenth annual Daniel Pearl World Music Days, held worldwide in October since 2002 to commemorate the life of slain US Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
Daniel Pearl World Music Days is an international network of concerts that uses the power of music to reaffirm a global commitment to tolerance and humanity.
Since its inception, Daniel Pearl World Music Days has grown to more than 13,400 performances in 138 countries.
Lahore-based choreographer Nighat Chaodhry and composer Faheem Mazhar melded contemporary and traditional Pakistani music and dance to show how unity and harmony can develop out of conflict. The evening performance followed two days of workshops organised around the theme of peace and tolerance led by renowned choreographer Nighat Chaudhry.
Chaudhry worked with students across Islamabad to demonstrate the powerful role, dance and music play in promoting tolerance and building mutual understanding. Students left the workshops prepared to incorporate powerful social messages in their own artistic endeavors.
US Ambassador Richard G. Olson welcomed the crowd of 500 students, educators, cultural representatives, and arts enthusiasts, and highlighted “our shared tradition - Pakistani and American - of using music to spread peace and tolerance.”
The US Embassy provides over $1 million annually in support of musical arts programming in Pakistan. Each year, dozens of Pakistani artists participate in musical exchange programmes to the United States, collaborations with US musicians, and performances both in Pakistan and abroad with US government support.