Aga Khan Music Awards shine a global spotlight on Ustad Saami’s legacy

WEB DESK: Ustad Naseeruddin Saami, Pakistan’s towering khayal maestro and the last grand ustad of the Delhi gharana, leads this year’s cohort of Patron’s Award recipients at the 2025 Aga Khan Music Awards — a recognition that places his eight-century lineage at the centre of a global celebration of musical heritage. The honour, announced ahead of the ceremony in London on November 22 (today), acknowledges Saami’s lifelong dedication to preserving the 800-year-old khayal tradition and his pioneering 49-note microtonal system, which he describes as “prayer through breath”.

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Saami shares the distinction with India’s renowned qawwals, Ustad Naseer Ahmed Khan Warsi and Nazeer Ahmed Khan Warsi, heirs to the original Qawwal Bachche lineage tracing back to Amir Khusrau. Their recognition marks a rare moment of cross-border celebration for a tradition that has travelled from Delhi and Hyderabad Deccan to stages across the world. Together, the Saami Brothers and the Warsi Brothers represent custodianship of devotional music at a time when South Asian classical and sacred forms are increasingly finding global audiences.

The Patron’s Awards are part of a wider slate of honours announced by the Aga Khan Music Programme, whose 2025 laureates span continents and genres, from Mali’s 87-year-old balafon legend Mariam Bagayoko, recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, to artists preserving Bahrain’s pearl-diving songs, innovating on the buzuq in Lebanon, and bringing music to conflict-affected children in Syria and Türkiye. Winners receive both a share of the prize fund and long-term career support including commissions, educational projects, and preservation initiatives.

This year’s ceremony, held for the first time in the UK in partnership with the EFG London Jazz Festival, brings together laureates from Pakistan, India, Iran, Mali, Palestine, Greece, Senegal, Lebanon, Bahrain, Morocco and Türkiye. Prince Rahim Aga Khan said the Awards reflect a belief in “the power of music to bridge cultures and uplift the human spirit”.

The global resonance of qawwali and khayal has also been amplified through cultural projects such as Songs of the Sufi, a documentary on the Qawwal Bachche gharana that recently marked its 30th international screening. Scholars describe the lineage’s survival as a testament to the enduring force of sacred music — an art form that, from Karachi and Peshawar to London and Toronto, continues to transcend borders and time.