Lancashire, County of Song praise for Brierfield Nasheed choir founder
A Brierfield man has been feted for his role in creating one of the world's first Nasheed choirs.
Hussnain Hanif is a well-respected Nasheed exponent, television and radio broadcaster and a socially-engaged arts practitioner of Pakistani working-class heritage who was born and brought up in Brierfield.
He has pioneered the Nasheed Choir with composer and choral director Jules Evans, fusing Western and Islamic musical traditions.
Hussnain has now been named Community Singing Champion in the Lancashire, County of Song programme in recognition of his work.
He said: “The Nasheed Choir is the world's first polyphonic Nasheed Choir and I'm honoured that my involvement has been recognised as part of the Singing Champions initiative with Lancashire, County of Song.
“This choir is a musical equation of my identity. Being Muslim, British and coming from a South-Asian Pakistani background, each of these identities have their own musical backgrounds and we fuse these together.
“Harmony singing is very much a western phenomenon, as opposed to South Asian and Middle Eastern traditions, where it's all one melody. So as a Muslim I sing Nasheeds - that's the Islamic side of it; I use Pakistani or South-Asian melodies - that's my cultural heritage, and then I fuse this in a choral form by using harmony, which is Western - so these are my three identities which I use to refine my craft.
“This work results in many first-time conversations. The choir that we have is very much based on a personal feeling based on spirituality. It's devotional music, which we see as having many aspects: a form of worship, of stress relief and making us happy.
“There is a perception that Muslims are not engaging with music or creative practices, but this isn't the case - Muslims are engaging with creativity all the time. Young Muslims relate to the singers and the musicians that they've grown up listening to in their homes - and this is what we're developing.”
The Singing Champion is just one of the initiatives by Lancashire, County of Song (LCoS) to elevate the profile of singing across the region in recent months.
Supported by Lancashire County Council and Arts Lancashire, in collaboration with Horse and Bamboo and Encounter Voices, LCoS has promoted public events, started a recruitment toolkit for community choirs in Lancashire and much more.