DILRANG ACADEMY OF MUSIC AND FINE ARTS has been formed to Promote, Encourage, and Develop the Art of Classical Music and to organize Kavi Sammelans, Mushairas, Seminars, Discussions and Debates on Music and Fine Arts, Music Competitions, as well as to render Financial, Medical and Educational help to needy and deserving artists and their families.
The DAMFA is committed to the promotion of Arts, culture and especially Indian classical music. It aims to preserve our rich cultural heritage and promote it among the common men, by exposing them to the best of what we have in our musical tradition. This aspect deserves special attention to day as more and more of our youth are getting alienated from this rich classical Tradition, overwhelmed as they are by the massive cultural invasion of our lives through television and now the internet.
Since the inception of the Academy in the year 1995, it has very successfully organized more than 45 major musical events and cultural events consisting of Sangeet Sammelans, Mushairas, Ghazal evenings and felicitations of many noted Music Personalities and Men of Letters.
We have been organizing Dilrang Music Festivals Parampara Concert and Shabe – Ghazals for the last more than 30 years, under the Banner of Ustad Azmat Hussain Khan Memorial Committee. Finally in the year 1995 we got the Dilrang Academy officially registered. In spite of a severe lack of funds, we took the musical mission ahead with our own humble effort. We feel very happy in expressing our great sense of gratitude towards our honorable members of the academy and specially our donors, advertisers, sponsors and well wishers, who have supported us and given us great encouragement, morally as well as financially.
The academy has been successful in publishing, the first part of the poetry compilation of Ustad Azmat Hussain Khan Maykash Atraulvi, namely “Arsh – e – Mohabbat” in the year 1996. A grand Mushaira was organized on the occasion and Music Director Khayyam, released the book as the Chief Guest. In the year 2000 Music Director Naushad Ali was invited as the Chief Guest in Academy “Parampara Music Festival”. Both Khayyam and Naushad paid highest tribute to the greatness of Ustad Azmat Hussain Khan Dilrang, with whom they were attached for quite a long time besides Prithviraj Kapoor, Ashok Kumar, Kanhaiyyalal and Anwar Hussain. The Academy organized felicitations and also helped several deserving artists, families, educationally and medically under the Academy’s “Free Check-up scheme for Artists”. We are especially grateful to the panel of specialized Doctors, who gave their consent to make our scheme successful and also helped practically. We are sure to get more specialized Doctors on our panel, which will help us practically to materialize our “Free check-up-Scheme”.
The Academy has decided to organize “PARAMPARA” a Gharana Music Feast to make the world aware of the great contributions of the traditional Gharanas and their stalwarts towards the progress, popularity and development of the Indian Classical Music, Vocal and Instrumental both. The “PARAMPARA” Music Festival will be a permanent annual feature of the Academy.
In the year 2000 we honored Ustad Yakub Hussain Khan Sahab, a Veteran Vocalist and an accomplished Music Scholar in the Music Festival. We also felicitated Prof. A. A. Syed a dedicated teacher and music lover. Our intention is very clear and practical and as done in the past several years, we have taken many positive steps to preserve and promote our Indian Music & Arts. We do have all the potentials to do it on a very large scale. It is obvious that the Academy depends on the munificence of the citizens of Mumbai, music lovers, disciples and the admirers of Ustad Azmat Hussain Khan “Dilrang”.
All these activities need the support and patronage of music lovers and we request them to help us in our mission by donating generously to the cause. This year being the centenary year of Ustad Azmat Hussain Khan, we plan to bring out a collection of his memoirs and autobiographical writings in English in order to make it accessible to a wider readership in India and abroad. As a record of the musical environment of its time as well as a collection of the splendors of the past, this massive book will be a Collector’s item.
In the centenary year (2011) of Gayan Samrat Ustad Azmat Hussain Khan, the Dilrang Academy of Music & Fine Arts sought to highlight the contributions made by Ustad Azmat Hussain Khan. We organized three major classical concerts in Mumbai many senior and celebrity artistes participated and paid tribute. “Classical Gems”, “Dilrang Bandishes” and “Rare Ragas” All the three major concerts were highly successful.
