Qawwali Night with Imran Aziz Mian

Tuesday 4 July, 7pm-11pm

Venue: Main auditorium, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Queen Street, Huddersfield HD1 2SP

Ticket price: £15

Age guidance: All ages (under 16s should be accompanied by an adult)

Access Information: https://www.accessable.co.uk/huddersfield-literature-festival/access-guides/lawrence-batley-theatre

Like his father, Imran Aziz Mian is not only a great singer but also a great philosopher and the only prominent qawwal to mostly write his own lyrics. Imran Aziz Mian’s qawwalis focus more on chorus and on emphasising the main point of the qawwali through repetition in traditional style with Harmonium, Dholak and Tabla.

Imran has a knack for reciting poetry that touches the hearts of his audiences. He brings a lot of passion to his live performances and one of his trademarks is his habit of getting carried away and rising to his knees (from the normal sitting position) while reciting poetry in the middle of a qawwali.

Imran Aziz is the best qawwal at singing his father Aziz Mian Qawwal’s songs and following his style of performance on stage. Some of those famous performances are Main Sharabi Sharabi also known as Teri Soorat, Mann Kunto Maula, Allah Hi Jaane Kaun Bashar Hai, and Nabi Nabi Ya Nabi, Ali Ali and more!

Imran follows his father in discussing religious and Sufi paradoxes in his qawwalis by directly addressing Allah (God) and about the misery of man (the best creation of the Almighty). He also has performed poetry by a number of contemporary Urdu poets, including Allama Iqbal, Sadiq and Qateel Shifai and Mirza Ghalib.

Aziz Mian Qawwal (Urdu: عزیز میاں قوال) (17 April 1942 – 6 December 2000) was a Pakistani traditional qawwal famous for singing ghazals in his own style of qawwali and is considered one of the greatest qawwals in South Asia. He holds the record for singing the longest commercially released qawwali, Hashr Ke Roz Yeh Poochhunga, which runs slightly over 150 minutes. Aziz is known by the sobriquets “Shahenshah-e-Qawwali” (King of Qawwali) and “Fauji Qawwal” (Military Singer), since his early performances were often in army barracks, and “the Nietzschean qawwal”.

Tickets available from the LBT website: https://thelbt.org/what-s-on/

Email: enquiries@thelbt.org

Phone: 01484 430528