Young Pakistani musician showcases talent at music festival in Berlin

By
Irfan Aftab
|

BERLIN: Maham Suhail was among the 10 young talented musicians who showcased their talent and explored German music in the Pop-Kultur Nachwuchs programme, which brings together “young musicians, DJ’s, producers, label-, club-, and festival-managers, journalists, bloggers and students of these disciplines consists of workshop” from around the world.

A young musician from Lahore, she came to Berlin to explore the German music industry wanted to find the best music genre which resonates well with her music style in western society.

This year, 837 young people from over 50 countries worldwide applied for the 250 spots in the programme. This was an increase of over 60% from last year.

837 young people from over 50 countries worldwide applied for the 250 spots in the programme

The third edition of Pop-Kultur festival attracted 10,000 visitors Kulturbrauerei in Berlin. In three days, more than 100 programme elements, including live concerts, DJ sets, talks, film screenings, readings, and exhibitions, took place.

The musicians travelled to Berlin in collaboration with Goethe Institut for a week before the beginning of the festival to take part in short internships at Berlin initiatives like Spex, Stil vor Talent, and SAVVY Contemporary e.V. What’s more, at the Soda Terrassen, they were able to participate in exchange with the city’s professional music and cultural scenes and with international guests.

Talking to Geo.tv, Maham said that the Goethe Talents Scholarship programme will enhance her music portfolio. Her performance was a hit at the festival. She sang the soulful poetry of Sant Kabir on classical piano tunes, which she composed in collaboration with a German pianist and a music composer from Taiwan. The performance fused folk music with electronic beats, resulting in a beautiful piece of music.

Maham says an important aspect of this experience was to engage with talented musicians from various genres and cultural backgrounds. “I expect to translate these interactions into collaborations with some of these artists,” she said. The young musician was all praise for the “metropolitan culture” of Berlin, are said that the people are “open to diversity”.