A prefix for women musicians

The Stein Auditorium in New Delhi recently witnessed history in the field of music with the felicitation of Dr. Yamini Krishnamurthy in a special ceremony organised by UstadGah. The legendary maestro Ustad Vilayat Khans daughter and internationally-acclaimed Sufi singer and founder of UstadGah,Zila Khan initiated the concept of conferring the title of Ustad-E-Maa on fellow women artistes. Zila Khan said that she had been disturbed by the fact that only male artistes were referred to as Ustad and Pandit,but female artistes had no professional prefix attached to their names. This prompted the activist in her to not just take up the cause but also make a statement by conferring the first-ever title of Ustad-E-Maa on Dr. Yamini Krishnamurti by the patrons of UstadGah,Dr. Farooq Abdullah,Minister for New & Renewable Energy,Salman Khurshid,Minister for Water Resources and Minority Affairs along with Padama Vibhushan Pt.Birju Maharaj.

A OneZone Song for world peace written and composed by Zila Khan was sung by the students of UstadGah in four different languages.

Zila Khan commenced her performance with Amir Khusraus kalaam,Jihale miskin mukun tagaful and Duraye naina followed by many others including Sakhi piya ko jo and To kaise kaatun and others and concluded with Aaj jaane ki zid na karo.

UstadGah,committed towards promoting classical music,has been training musically talented students of prestigious schools of Delhi by sponsoring students who cannot pursue their passion in music due to

financial problems.