With a serious dearth of new talent producing original music in Pakistan, one man has decided to change it once and for all. The Music Mentorship Program in Karachi is offering young people the opportunity to be trained by Pakistan's best musicians.
The man behind the project, titled 'I am Karachi Music Mentorship Program,' is composer and guitarist Shallum Asher Xavier.
Xavier, who has been recording professionally since over a decade in Pakistan, is certain the mentorship program will give the city's youngsters the right mix of guidance to thrive.
"We want to help individuals who are talented," he tells Geo.TV, "and give them the exposure and a platform. This will eventually give rise to a fresh pool of talented young artist."
The first batch consists of 15 students, selected through a series of talent hunt programs launched across the city. "These talent hunts were held at various educational institutes in Karachi. We made sure to reach out to the underserved and neglected communities," he adds.
Not only are the eight boys and seven girls from different backgrounds but they also have divergent interest, such as beatboxing or playing the tabla. A total of 300 candidates applied for the program. Those selected were handpicked by a panel of judges, including Fuzon's lead singer Khurram Iqbal, renowned musician and another Fuzon band member Imran Momina aka Emu, Ustad Hameed Ali Khan, vocalist Nazia Zuberi, and Xavier himself.
During the six-month workshop, the boys and girls will be mentored by Khurram Iqbal, Nazia Zuberi, Razaq Nawaz, a table player, Nigel Bobby, a professor at the National Academy of Preforming Arts and John Saville, a jazz pianist.
"The course will cover music history to writing and understanding chordal structures," says Xavier. "It is very important for us to make sure that when these students complete the program, they know how to read and write music."
To keep the mentees motivated, celebrity workshops have also been incorporated in the curriculum.
At the end of the program, original compositions will be produced for the mentees, including possible collaborations with Fuzon and Zoe Viccaji.
Geo.tv had the pleasure of witnessing the training session with Emu from Fuzon, which we had share with our readers as well.
#Pakistan's first #Music #MentorshipProgram in #Karachi is such an awesome initiative pic.twitter.com/2hCNe26GrY
— Ovais Jafar (@ovaisjafar) April 23, 2017
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