“Breaking traditional barriers and restrictions, I never imagined that the sound of my flute will echo in the biggest art platforms, state departments and diplomatic missions as well as abroad and give me immense recognition.”
Salman Adil, a Rawalpindi-based flute artist who has a huge fan following, said this about his career in this field. “My relatives and friends who were habitual of criticizing me for playing a musical instrument now eagerly wish to listen my flute and attend my musical event,” he said.
At the age of 15 years, “I memorized a traditional song “Lathey Di Chadar” on a piece of rough flute from my cousin, considering it a toy and practiced that day and night for the sake of fun for many days,” he said. “I could not realise how my fingers have started discovering different sounds and tunes from the six holes of this piece of wood,” he said.
Salman Adil shared that he was blessed enough to discover the creativity flooded in him and polish his talent through guidance of his music teacher Ustad Babar Ali who is a flute maestro and gained recognition through playing flute with renowned singers late Melody Queen Noor Jahan, Attaullaha Esakhelvi, and many others.
“It was height of my passion that I used to play flute while sitting in the closet of my room with shut doors due to specific environment of my home, faced criticism from my family and relatives but never give up,” he said. “My family was not supportive during start of my career rather afraid of what people will say about me and was thinking this instrument will ruin my whole life,” he said.
“But they started encouraging me after realising that my talent is God-gifted and I cannot adjust myself in any other field of life,” he said. “I started practicing different tunes and songs on flute day and night and entered into a world of “Raagas,” thoroughly studied, learned many things from internet and tried my best to achieve excellence in my work,” he said.
Playing flute is not merely playing a musical instrument for Salman Adil but it connects him to spiritualism while taking him to another world of peace, love and humanity. “It was the sound of flute which I loved when I started playing it but then realised its purpose is not just to allure and entertain people but also transforming lives of people by ending frustration, hatred and prejudices,” Salman Adil said.
“The difference between the flute played by me or other (flute) artists, according to music researchers, is the element of spirituality that entered in my flute when I started following the music having elements of mysticism and the teachings of Sufi poets like Baba Bhulley Shah, Molana Rome, Fariduddin GanjShakar, Waris Shah, Amir Khusro and others,” he said.
“My soulful musical performances carry the element of truthfulness, which inherited from my (late) father who was a journalist and never compromised on truth and honesty. My profession for me is just like praying and I am playing my role to bring youth on right track through educating them,” he said.
He said that the government must give patronage to the artist’s community and take steps for their welfare so that they bring more laurels for their county. Salman Adil is a trendsetter as a flute artist and imparted flute training to a number of students from across the country and abroad through social media.
Around 10 of his students are now working as professional flute players. He has represented his country through playing eastern and western music as well as instrumental fusion in France, Holland, Japan, India, China, United Kingdom, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan. Salman Adil has won many awards for his contribution in the music industry at home and abroad, including PTV awards for two times.
