Rahat Fateh Ali Khan announced that he will be setting up a music academy in memory of his uncle, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The institution will be named after the late qawwal, who is broadly considered as one of the best musicians of all time.
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan held a press conference in Lahore on Wednesday, where he shared what he hope to achieve with the Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Music Academy. “Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan died at the age of 48. Therefore, I have decided to pay tribute to him by organizing 48 concerts all around the world. The proceeds of the concerts will be used for the formation of the academy,” said Rahat. “It will be at equality with international standards and we hope to provide classes in all genres of music, including classical and qawwali.”
The series of concerts will commence in Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s place of birth, Faisalabad in January, next year, and end in London in September. “I wanted to start my tribute from the very place that gave birth to the legend that he became,” Rahat explained. “The last concert is scheduled to be in the UK because Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan spent the last few days of his life there.” Other than this, Rahat and his qawwal group will travel around all the major countries that Nustrat Fateh Ali Khan used to visit in his lifetime and amuse the fans who still miss his voice and music.
Further Rahat said, “My country’s integrity is very important to me and I am intentionally not doing a concert in India.”
The singer went on to recall the time he spent as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s understudy, he said, “I want to show the world how Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan worked on his music and how great a service he has done to the world by making such unforgettable tunes.”
