Capturing the essence of a unique sound, as never done before.

Told through live performance, visually captivating stories and the music of an icon that has impacted generations across the globe, ‘Sounds of an Empire’ is a multidisciplinary work in progress piece that explores the power and legacy of Qawwali and the music of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, whilst paying tribute to its roots within the city of Birmingham.

This project is written and produced by Mustafa Chaudhry and directed by Sameena Hussain, with support from Hoxton Hall, Soul City Arts and Say Arts.

Following the previous year’s sold out sharing just a stone’s throw away from many of Nusrat’s iconic performances in Birmingham, our exciting project made its way down to London’s Hoxton Hall.

We invited the audience to experience a show that previous audiences have called ‘exciting and powerful’, ‘a necessary story’ and one that ‘brings you closer to your roots’. Blending together theatre with live qawwali and visual projections, this project set out to achieve something entirely new and unique to the world of theatre.

This was the first time the project, which is still in development, was shared to audiences outside of Birmingham. The opportunity helped to shape its future and to fulfil our intention of staging the piece for further audiences across the country.