Old Delhi Haveli To Host Fusion Music Concert Blending Indian, Persian And Central Asian Sounds

On December 27, a restored haveli in Old Delhi will momentarily fall silent before filling with music that once echoed through dargahs and royal courts centuries ago. Set in the heart of Sita Ram Bazaar, the Kathika Cultural Centre and Museum will host The Songbook of Qawwals, an intimate indoor concert that brings together Indian classical, Persian and Central Asian musical traditions.

Presented by the six-member Indo-Persian collective Ensemble Khusrawi, the hour-long performance marks a rare convergence of scholarship, heritage conservation and live music. The concert will revive compositions rooted in Sufi, Bhakti and Ismaili traditions,works that have largely vanished from contemporary performance spaces.

At the core of the project is academic research. Rubab William Rees Hofmann, an Afghan national and director of Ensemble Khusrawi, explained that the compositions are drawn from Sufi manuscripts studied as part of his doctoral work. “The repertoire explores early Hindi poetry from the 15th and 16th centuries, including writings by Kabir, Amir Khusraw and Fakhruddin Iraqi,” he said. “These songs were once regularly performed at dargahs but gradually disappeared. This project began three years ago to bring them back into the public ear.”

The concert also seeks to reintroduce traditional instruments that have faded from mainstream use. Instruments such as the rubab, tombak and daf will take centre stage, alongside Indian classical staples like the sarangi and tabla. Ensemble co-director Sina Fakhroddin Ghaffari said the intention is not simply revival, but relevance. “While the form of these instruments has evolved, the aim is to bring their sound back into contemporary performance,” he said.

The ensemble includes Hofmann and Ghaffari on Central Asian instruments, Murad Ali Khan on sarangi, Ishaan Ghosh on tabla, and vocalists Mukhtiyar Ali Khan and Pouria Akhavass.

The venue itself carries deep historical resonance. Sita Ram Bazaar, one of Old Delhi’s oldest commercial stretches, is known for its narrow lanes and ageing havelis. Many of these homes,particularly in the Kucha Pati Ram area,were once occupied by Kashmiri Pandit families such as the Haksars and Shouries. Over time, several have fallen into neglect or been repurposed as storage spaces, including the haveli where India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was married.

Kathika’s haveli stands apart as one of the few to have been carefully restored, not just as an architectural site but as a cultural space.

“For three generations, my family has lived in Old Delhi,” said Atul Khanna, founder and curator of Kathika. “Kathika grew out of those memories. When we restored this haveli, the goal was to preserve both the physical structure and the intangible heritage—music, stories and traditions—that define the area.”

With The Songbook of Qawwals, Kathika and Ensemble Khusrawi aim to reconnect the past with the present, using music as a bridge between history, scholarship and lived cultural memory.