• Music has always been present in brothers Zaiim and Rahy Premji’s home.
    The.Ismaili | 10 January 2018 | Jubilee Arts

    Zaiim and Rahy Premji: Music makes the world go round

    Music has always been present in brothers Zaiim and Rahy Premji’s home.
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For young musicians Zaiim (age 15) and Rahy (age 13), art plays an integral role in their daily lives and they view music as a medium that allows people in different societies to connect with their common humanity: “Music is a universal language. Art enhances dialogue and provides a medium to explore opinions. The art of music lends itself to contribute positively, to provide confidence to engage with different societies and removes the barrier of physical language communication.”

 

As young children their home was always filled with classical Indian and tabla music, so from an early age Zaiim and Rahy were exposed to what would eventually become their way of creative and emotional expression.

“Our home was always filled with music and listening to different genres of music enabled us to have a go at adapting these genres to the tabla, and we enjoy this. We wanted to explore the tradition of Indian classical music in order to develop our knowledge across many genres of music and the Benaras gharana of tabla lends itself very well to this,” they note.

“We hope our musical expressions inspire others around the world to think differently, especially considering the current turmoil that exists in many regions of the world today,” says Zaiim. The boys believe the music they create lets them tell their stories and connect emotionally with the beat they’ve created. “This is why we are excited about the opportunity to become more connected with other Ismaili artists through Jubilee Arts”, says Rahy.

Zaiim and Rahy believe that Jubilee Arts and the International Arts Festival will allow artists, especially young artists, to connect with each other and support each other in overcoming some of the challenges they face: “young people face many challenges, including living in societies with lots of expectations that are unreasonable — an artist community will help with understanding this challenge and be supportive.”

“Jubilee Arts will allow us to participate, to engage and to have positive actions in order to contribute to a unified goal by sharing our talents, like music; this will help us give back to our communities and the those around us, while building stronger outreach to artists outside of the Jamat,” explain Zaiim and Rahy.

Jubilee Arts and the International Arts Festival provide an opportunity for artists, both budding and professional, to showcase their unique gifts. We encourage all artists within the Jamat to participate in this Diamond Jubilee international programme. Follow the Jubilee Arts journey on the.ismaili/jubilee-arts.