Barkat Ali - rabab player & singer

Music and spirituality have always coexisted for Hunza-born singer and rabab player Barkat Ali, who learned to play the rabab from his father and started singing at a young age.  “My father served the Jamat as a khalifa, and a khalifa must know how to play the rabab and sing manaqib and religious songs. So I learned originally from him.”  Multi-talented musician, Barkat also plays the harmonium and the daf (a percussion instrument), and can sing in Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, and Burunshaski languages. 

Barkat attended university in Karachi where he continued to cultivate his musical talents, performing nationally on several platforms including PTV. He once travelled from Karachi to a Jamatkhana in interior Sindh for the chance to sing one song! 

After coming to Canada in the year 2008 he was part of National Ismaili Musical Ensemble (NIME) through which he performed at many high profile Jamati events in the presence of Mawlana Hazar Imam including the Golden Jubilee Canadian institutional dinner in Vancouver, the ground breaking ceremony of Ismaili Center and Aga Khan Park in Toronto, and the opening ceremony of the Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat in Ottawa. In 2011 he performed at the institutional dinner in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, followed by shows for Jamat both there and in Mwanza. His international performances have also seen him travel to the USA, Australia, and the UAE.

He sites his most memorable performance playing the rabab as part of the ensemble who performed the Nashid at the Homage ceremony in Aiglemont, France commemorating Hazar Imam’s Diamond Jubilee.  Here he said his eyes were blurred with tears from heartfelt gratitude for his opportunity to serve the Jamat through his art.