Case study
A ticketed Warsi Brothers qawwali concert in Singapore, produced and promoted
A ticketed qawwali evening for 350 people at Jubilee Hall, Raffles Hotel Singapore: the troupe hired, the tickets sold and the show produced by ICE India's founder.
By ICE India · Updated
- Client
- Own promotion: a ticketed public concert
- Event
- Music concert
- When
- 16 April 2016
- Where
- Jubilee Hall, Raffles Hotel, Singapore
- 350ticketed guests on the night
- 388seats in Jubilee Hall, a Victorian-style theatre at the time
- 2lead qawwals, the Warsi Brothers, with their accompanists
The brief
A concert has to find its audience before it is staged. The Warsi Brothers, a Hyderabad qawwali group, were to perform for an audience in Singapore, which meant selling tickets in a city where most of the audience first had to be told the evening existed, and then receiving them well on the night. The evening sold 350 tickets.
ICE India's founder, Mufaddal Dahodwala, was the promoter: he hired the troupe, managed the production and sold the tickets, trading under a different company name at the time, so the evening was not billed as an ICE India event. We show it here because the work was the same craft as a corporate programme: one evening, one venue, one performance, and an audience whose experience begins before the doors open.
What the founder delivered
Booking the troupe
The Warsi Brothers and their accompanists hired directly from Hyderabad for a single Singapore performance on 16 April 2016.
Promotion and ticket sales
The concert promoted in Singapore and tickets sold to 350 guests, so the audience was built in the weeks before the night.
Venue at Raffles Hotel
Jubilee Hall, then the historic-style theatre at Raffles Hotel, with fixed tiered seating facing a raised stage.
Production, stage and sound
A carpeted stage for the seated ensemble, with harmoniums, tabla and a microphone for each singer.
Arrival and reception
Guests gathered in the hotel foyer before taking their seats, so arrival was part of the evening.
Artist hosting
The performers were looked after for the evening, from the stage to meeting guests.
The performers
The Warsi Brothers are Nazeer Ahmed Khan Warsi and Naseer Ahmed Khan Warsi, a qawwali group based in Hyderabad who perform with eight accompanists. They sing the qawwalis of Amir Khusro in the classical style of the Delhi gharana, and received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2014.
Qawwali is performed seated, with the lead singers at harmoniums, tabla behind them and the party answering in chorus. That sets the staging: a low carpeted platform, microphones for every singer and sound that carries the ensemble to the back of a theatre.
The venue
Jubilee Hall was a Victorian-style theatre inside Raffles Hotel on Beach Road, listed as seating 388 at the time. A hall of that size suits qawwali: close enough for the audience to see the singers' hands and faces, large enough for a ticketed evening, which drew 350 guests.
Guests were received in the hotel's ornate foyer before the performance.
What made it work
- Audience first
- A concert depends on who is in the seats. Promotion was planned around the audience, not the stage.
- A venue that fits the music
- A 388-seat theatre kept the performance close, with 350 guests in the room.
- One evening, planned as a whole
- Foyer, hall, stage and artists were run as one sequence, from arrival to the final bow.
This concert was produced in Singapore. In India, ICE India plans corporate events, and the licences guide covers music licences in Mumbai.
Questions this event answers
Why is a concert listed among corporate case studies?
Because the discipline carries over: venue, stage, artists and guest arrival for one evening. A client evening or festive dinner with live music is planned the same way.
Can ICE India produce a ticketed cultural evening outside a corporate programme?
Yes. The same planning applies to a concert as to a gala dinner: venue, stage, artists, guest arrival and audience building. See event management.
What does qawwali need on stage?
A platform where the whole ensemble can sit together, harmoniums and tabla, and a microphone for each singer, with sound set so the chorus is heard as clearly as the leads.
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