Warsi Brothers receive Aga Khan Music Award for preserving the spiritual and musical legacy of Amir Khusrau

LONDON, Nov. 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Naseer and Nazeer Ahmed Khan Warsi, the Warsi Brothers, have been honoured with the Patron’s Award at the Aga Khan Music Awards 2025 in a ceremony on Friday night at the Southbank Centre, London.

The recognition placed India at the heart of a global celebration of cultural heritage as the world’s music industry came together to celebrate eleven groundbreaking artists from Morocco, Bahrain, Türkiye, Iran, Lebanon, India, Mali, Palestine, Greece, Pakistan and Senegal, each representing a wide range of musical heritages and their evolutions.

The Warsi Brothers are among the finest living custodians of traditional qawwali in the Indian subcontinent. Direct descendants of Amir Khusrau’s 14th-century lineage and trained by their grandfather Padma Shri Aziz Ahmad Khan Warsi, they represent the Delhi Gharana’s classical rigor and spiritual depth.

Today, the family remains devoted custodians of shrine service and Khusrau’s classical repertoire, while also bringing Khusrau’s legacy to new audiences across India and abroad. With support, they aim to document their vast repertoire and mentor new generations to ensure that their 700-year-old spiritual tradition endures.

The Warsi Brothers receive the Aga Khan Music Award for “energetic preservation and onward transmission of the spiritual and musical legacy of Amir Khusrau to multigenerational audiences at the highest level of musical excellence”.

The Aga Khan Music Award laureates, selected by an independent jury from a pool of over 400 nominees, share a prize fund of $500,000. The Awards ceremony headlined a four-day festival celebrating music from the Great East, and marked the first time the Aga Khan Music Awards have taken place in the United Kingdom.

His Highness the Aga Khan:

“I am honoured to carry forward a vision deeply rooted in my father’s belief in the power of music to bridge cultures and uplift the human spirit. The Aga Khan Music Awards reflect values that lie at the heart of the Aga Khan Development Network: pluralism, intercultural dialogue and the spiritual connection that communities around the world find in music. In many of the regions we serve, music is an integral part of daily life, woven into the rhythms of prayer, celebration, memory and identity. We continue to support artists and traditions that speak not only to heritage, but also to hope.”

Further Information 

Free to use images

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2830402/Aga_Khan_1.jpg
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2830403/Aga_Khan_2.jpg

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/warsi-brothers-receive-aga-khan-music-award-for-preserving-the-spiritual-and-musical-legacy-of-amir-khusrau-302624057.html