Instrumentation
Said Mushfiq Hashimi: Harmonium and Vocals
Said Moheb Hashimy: Tabla
Sujata Verma: Acoustic Tanpura, vocals, khanjari, surmandal
Shuja Sayed: Conga drum, tumbak, Afghan dhol

GENRES
Afghan folk, North Indian classical, light classical, ghazals, and Qawwalis.

12 LANGUAGES
Songs are performed in Farsi, Dari, Pashto, Urdu, Hindi, and Punjabi, to mention a few. In additional to these languages we typically speak to audiences in English, French and Dutch.

INDIVIDUAL BIOS
Said Mushfiq Hashimi, lead vocalist and harmonium player, is a disciple of Pt. Ajoy Chakraborthy, the torchbearer of the Patiala Gharana. S. Mushfiq received his Masters degree from the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music in Holland. Mushfiq is also the founder of the Mushfiq Arts Company in Ottawa, which is an arts centre that specializes in teaching Eastern vocal, tabla, harmonium, sitar and keyboard instruction in classical, light classical, Indian and Afghani folk music. Visual arts in painting and calligraphy are also taught.

Said Moheb Hashimy, tabla player, is a disciple of Ustad Arif Chishti and Ejaz Hussein. S. Moheb is a renowned professional tabla player in the Punjab Gharana style of percussion and a music composer. He has been teaching for 15 years in 4 different countries around the world.

Shuja Sayed, percussionist, has had musical influences from Afghanistan and India all his life. His areas of speciality are Afghan dhol, tumbak and conga drum.

Sujata Verma, vocalist, is from India and is the disciple of Said Mushfiq Hashimi.

AFGHAN CALLIGRAPHY
Said Mushfiq is also a trained painter, sketcher and calligrapher. In addition to music, he teaches these forms of visual arts at our arts centre. Mushfiq is visiting faculty at the Ottawa School of Arts for calligraphy. He has been engaged by the Canadian Museum of Civilization to demonstrate his calligraphy skills at the PETRA exhibition. He is the 7th generation promoter and professional calligrapher within his family.

Mushfiq can be engaged by concert or festival presenters to write audience member names, or your sponsor names, in his calligraphic art form on marbling paper which he designs.

ARTS FUNDING AND SUPPORT
The Mushfiq Ensemble gratefully acknowledges support from the festivals and concert series that engage us. We also thank the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals, which opened so many doors for us. We thank the Canada Council for the Arts (Domestic Touring grant and Audience and Market Development); FACTOR (International Showcasing grant) as well as SOCAN for providing us a grant.
Mushfiq Hashimi gratefully acknowledges support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ottawa Arts Council.