Friday’s opening night concert to the Arabic Music Days weekend currently under way at Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin was spirited and delightful from first to last. The vocalist, oud player, and composer Moneim Adwan introduced and led a fantastic set with fellow musicians Zied Zouari (violin), Leïla Soldevila (double bass), Yassir Bousselam (cello), and Yousef Zayed (percussion).
From the Boulez Saal description: “Moneim Adwan, born in the Palestinian city of Rafah in Gaza, is a singer, oud player, and composer whose music mixes influences from his native country and from France, where he has lived for a number of years. Questions of freedom, justice, and identity play an important role in his work, which includes collaborations with artists from the worlds of classical and traditional music. His second opera, Orfeo & Majnun, premiered this past summer at the Aix-en-Provence Festival; it brings together the Greek myth of Orpheus with the Persian-Arabic story of Layla and Majnun. At the Pierre Boulez Saal, Adwan will present a selection of Arabic songs and settings of poems by Jalal Ad-din Rumi and Mahmoud Darwish: ‘Rumi is immersed in philosophy, and Darwish writes in a musical language. Both of them paint images that touch everyone who encounters them and enter hearts without asking permission.'”
There’s also an exhibition of works by Nasser Hussein (open all weekend), as well as film screenings. Admission to these events is free. Full line-up here.
Filed under: Arabic Music, Moneim Adwan, Pierre Boulez Saal
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 