Ustad Ghulam Ali Khan, the king of ghazals wowed Boston audiences on July 31st during his concert in Chelmsford High School. His music is truly universal as the attendees ranged from young to old and were of various nationalities and walks of life. Ghulam Aliji is a Pakistani ghazal singer of Patiala gharana who started his singing career performing for Radio Lahore in the 1960’s. During his 50 years performing on stage, he has released over 60 albums with compositions in both Urdu and Punjabi touching the hearts of millions. The maestro has been performing in the greater Boston area for the past 30 years and some attendees stated that every concert of his is completely unique and worth attending.

The audience was mesmerized by Ghulam Aliji’s voice as he started the show along with his sitar, tabla, and banjo accompaniment. The majority of his compositions are Hindustani raag based and throughout the night he educated his audiences on the significance of each raag he presented. The audience loved the songs and whistled away when the maestro serenaded them with compositions like Chupke Chupe raat din aanso bahan, Dil mein ik leher si uthi hai, Faasley aisa bhi hongay, Hungama hai kyun barpa. He mentioned halfway through the show that he doesn’t sing songs that are meaningless and rightfully so as each of his ghazals was embellished with rich shers.

During the intermission, my mother and I had a chance to meet the maestro himself backstage- last time we met him was when I was 8 years old. Ghulam Aliji was so enthusiastic and kind when I asked him to autograph an old snap I had of all of us. I am amazed by his humility  as despite being such an accomplished artist and teacher of music, he said that he will always be a student.

Even though the concert began a bit late, I would say the event was really magical. I feel so lucky to be able to meet him in person again and experience the richness of his voice and ghazals live.

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