The interview is in the Dari language
The contemporary composer, instrumentalist, and producer says Afghan artists living abroad have a responsibility to save the country’s traditional music from the “existential threat” it faces under the Taliban regime.
“My goal is how to keep the rubab instrument alive in this exile world, not only this instrument but also Afghanistan’s musical culture,” he told SBS Dari.
“We have a great responsibility; this is something that only we [the Afghan artists abroad] can do at the moment.”
Born and raised in the United States and having studied eastern classical music, Mr Essar has been able to establish his own unique genre that has successfully introduced rubab to western audiences.
Qais Essar says he has developed his own unique style of playing Rubab. Source: Supplied/Qais Essar
“Before rubab, I could play many musical instruments… but honestly, rubab has a kind of magic in it because the first time I started playing it, I felt a feeling in my heart that I had never experienced before,” he said.
“That’s why I said to myself that I’ll put all these other instruments aside and only work on rubab.
I have tried to compose rubab in a way that has both western and eastern elements. If you combine these two things, neither the rubab feature nor the western feature is lost.”
Mr Essar’s first long-play album, The Green Language, became Amazon’s number one bestseller in 2014.
In 2017, he composed original music for the Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated film, The Breadwinner, directed by Nora Twomey and produced by Angelina Jolie.
He earned a Canadian Screen Award for "Best Original Song" for the piece he produced for The Breadwinner, called "The Crown Sleeps".
He also contributed to 2021’s Oscar-nominated Afghan-American documentary film Three Songs for Benazir.
Mr Essar has also toured and performed live around the world.
Invited by Worlds Within Worlds, Mr Essar will be debuting on Australia’s east coast in August.
The master of Afghan rubab will perform live at events in Sydney, and one in Brisbane before heading to Melbourne and Ballarat in Victoria.
