Aga Khan Master Musicians

The Aga Khan Master Musicians (AKMM) is a sextet whose members are drawn from the top ranks of the distinguished artist roster assembled, cultivated, and curated by the Aga Khan Music Programme over the last seventeen years.

Wu Man, pipa
Basel Rajoub, saxophone, duclar, tárogató
Sirojiddin Juraev, dutar, tanbur, sato
Feras Charestan, qanun
Abbos Kosimov, frame drums
Jasser Haj Youssef, viola and viola d’amore

AKMM creates music inspired by its members’ deep roots in the cultures of the Middle East and Mediterranean Basin, South Asia, Central Asia, and China. Brought together by the Aga Khan Music Programme to explore how musical innovation can contribute to the revitalisation of cultural heritage, the Master Musicians are venerated performers and composer-arrangers who appear on the world’s most prestigious stages while also serving as preeminent teachers, mentors, and curators. Each of these exceptional artists has achieved mastery within a rigorous musical tradition defined by canonical styles, repertoires, pedagogy, and performance techniques. At the same time, they share a belief that tradition can serve as an invaluable compass for an artistic search into new forms of creativity inspired, but not constrained, by the past. This search has led to a strikingly original body of work composed, arranged, and performed by the Master Musicians, often joined by distinguished guests. Recent concerts have featured Kronos Quartet, Malian ngoni virtuoso Bassekou Kouyaté, and the Lisbon-based Gulbenkian Orchestra