Friday, October 7th

Opening Concert
St. Marien Church
6:00 p.m.

Ensemble Hewar
Kinan Azmeh, Clarinet
Dima Orsho, Voice
Issam Rafea, Oud & Voice
________________________________

Morgenland Chamber Orchestra
Kinan Azmeh, Clarinet
Yildiz Ibrahimova, Voice
Jivan Gasparyan, Duduk

This year’s Morgenland Festival Osnabrück will be opened by the Syrian Trio Hewar. Hewar is the Arabic word for "dialogue" and represents the shared philosophy of its musicians: Kinan Azmeh, Dima Orsho and Issam Rafea.

The Trio combines traditional Arabic music with Jazz, Scat and Classical music, breaking down the boundaries of traditional genres and uniting elements of different music cultures into a unique and unmistakable sound. The Trio has not only been fostering this dialogue among themselves but also with various guest musicians for years – and for the first time at the Morgenland Festival Osnabrück with Jivan Gasparyan, the Armenian music legend.

The second half of the opening concert will feature the Morgenland Chamber Orchestra. The Chamber Orchestra was founded in 2009 and celebrated its highly successful premiere at the Morgenland Festival Osnabrück in the same year. The orchestra brings together Syrian, Azerbaijani, Iranian, Kurdish, Armenian and German musicians in differing instrumental groupings. This year’s soloists are Jivan Gasparyan, the Bulgarian-Turkish vocal acrobat Yildiz Ibrahimova, and Kinan Azmeh. The orchestra has developed its own unique repertoire and views itself as a co-working space for musicians from differing traditions.

The Iranian composer and conductor Nader Mashayekhi will direct the orchestra.

The documentary film "Eastern Voices" by Frank Scheffer and Günter Wallbrecht was released in July of this year by EuroArts Music International. Both renowned filmmakers have followed the initial steps of the Morgenland Chamber Orchestra, which has evolved over time into a more permanent ensemble and now will guest at the Troja Festival in Osnabrück’s sister city, Canakkale, for the first time internationally.