International Violin Day observed

ISLAMABAD, Dec 13 (APP):The International Violin Day, like elsewhere in the world, was celebrated in Pakistan on Wednesday with enthusiasm and fervor.
Son of the great Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, subcontinent’s maestro Ustad Raees Ahmad Khan is known for his extraordinary skill on the violin. He is a magician with violin strings and has traveled to 25 countries to perform his exquisite instrumentals. Ustad Raees has performed with international artists and knows fusion music like no other.
He is a master of creating fusion music due to his expertise in local and western classical music. Among his numerous awards and accolades won at home and abroad, he is the proud recipient of the Pride of Performance.
Talking to APP, Ustad Raees Khan said that the violin, also known informally as a fiddle, is a wooden string instrument in the violin family. It is the smallest and highest-pitched instrument in the family in regular use.
Smaller violin-type instruments are known, including the violin piccolo and the kit violin, but these are virtually unused. The violin typically has four strings tuned in perfect fifth and is most commonly played by drawing a bow across its strings, though it can also be played by plucking the strings with the fingers (pizzicato). Violins are important instruments in a wide variety of musical genres.
The International Violin Day is celebrated on the birthday of Igor Stravinsky, who was born in Lomonosov on June 17, 1882, and died in New York on April 6, 1971.
Stravinsky’s compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and first performed in Paris by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913).
The Rite of Spring, which provoked a riot during its premiere, transformed the way in which subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure and was largely responsible for Stravinsky’s enduring reputation as a musical revolutionary who pushed the boundaries of musical design.