Adnan Karim & Hezaravaz Ensemble

Nouruz Ensemble

Nouruz is the New Year’s and spring festival in the Persian and Kurdish cultures. The Nouruz Ensemble led by Iraqi Bassem Hawar also understands »spring« as a departure – towards exciting encounters between the musicians and their second home in Germany, and with other musical styles. In this concert, however, they focus entirely on their roots. A musical journey takes the ensemble from Basra in southern Iraq to Mosul in the north. They perform pieces from the southern marshlands and poetry set to music by Iraqi Assyrians and Arameans from northern Iraq, as well as classical Arabic maqam music from the area around Baghdad and all over the country. Bassem Hawar is a virtuoso on the Iraqi joza violin, which he built and developed himself; he founded the Nouruz Ensemble as a quartet in 2018. He combines a wide variety of musical styles with virtuosity, and is a tireless ambassador for the music of his homeland. Hawar is joined by the Iranian Kiomars Musayyebi on the delicate dulcimer santur and Saad Mahmoud Jawad, one of Iraq’s most renowned oud players. Other members of Nouruz are Persian percussionist Reza Samani, who has long had his roots in the Cologne area, and the Iraqi Rageed William on Armenia’s national instrument, the melancholy-sounding shawm duduk and the smoky-sounding flute nai. The guest vocalist is Baghdad-born Rita William, who works at the interface between Christian and Arabic singing.

Ensemble NIGHT

The landscape of Nepal stretches from tropical plains to the icy, sublime peaks of the Himalayas. Its music possesses a similarly exciting diversity. The Ensemble NIGHT brings out these hidden treasures located between rural folklore, Indian echoes and spiritual colouring. The quintet was formed in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu in 2006 by singer and multi-instrumentalist Jason Kunwar. After an initial phase as a metal band, the musicians decided to explore and preserve the cultural cosmos of the country’s more than 100 ethnic groups and languages. Accompanied by intensive field research trips to remote villages, they have developed a repertoire in which old songs and almost lost instruments come back into play. These include the paluwa flute made from fresh leaves, the three-stringed sarangi covered with sheepskin, and the Tamang stringed instrument known as the tungna. The ensemble also writes new songs based on its deep understanding of traditional music. This »new school folk« tells of spirituality as well as depicting the hardships of life in the countryside. The ensemble also documents its work on film – giving Nepal an opportunity to pass on its exciting heritage to future generations and to the world at large.

Liedstadt & Ensemble Resonanz

Mais Harb, Hêja Netirk and Julian Prégardien - three first-class singers share their favorite songs and reinterpret them together with the musicians of Ensemble Resonanz and guests. Experimental Kurdish music by Hêja Netirk meets Franz Schubert sung by Julian Prégardien. Mais Harb's Arabic songs resound with a fresh string sound. Melodies from Germany, Kurdistan, Syria, Austria and Iran combine with the support of the children's choir of the Al-Farabi Music Academy to create a genuine Berlin song recital.

The Naghash Ensemble Armenia

The Naghash Ensemble blends the deeply rooted spirituality of Armenian folk music with new classical, post-minimal and infectious energy. Three female classical singers and four virtuosic instrumentalists on the duduk, oud, dhol and piano play music based on the words of the medieval poet and Christian priest Mkrtich Naghash. Naghash was a 15th-century painter, poet and priest who sought to promote inter-religious dialogue. He initially lived on the shores of Lake Van in what is today Turkey, but later moved to Constantinople (Istanbul today) because of religious conflict. There, he processed his experiences of exile in poems that explore the themes of displacement, foreignness and the impossibility of arriving. Subsequent Armenian history is also marked by ethnic and religious suppression, expulsion and violence, culminating in the Ottoman Empire genocide of 1915 in which hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed or forced into exile. The grandmother of the Armenian-American composer John Hodian, who is a pianist with the Naghash Ensemble, fled to the USA to escape the genocide. No wonder Naghash’s poems moved him so deeply as a symbol of the fate of his people: »The words leapt off the page and into my soul.« Hodian’s »Songs of Exile« are carried by traditional Armenian melodies and rhythms, embodied by the oboe-like duduk, the oud lute and the dhol and dumbek drums. Combined with neo-classical sounds on the piano and the voices of three female singers – who are trained in western classical music as well as Armenian folk music – there emerges a haunting and unique soundscape.

Art Ensemble of Chicago

With fantastic younger musicians added to the line-up, the collective creates its usually unusual homage to its founding members, staying true to its roots and yet always with its finger on the pulse. »From Ancient to the Future« was the band’s motto right from the start and it speaks volumes about their musical positioning – not only in contemporary jazz, but when it comes to old musical traditions and new music as well. With fantastic younger musicians added to the line-up, the collective creates its usually unusual homage to its founding members, staying true to its roots and yet always with its finger on the pulse. »From Ancient to the Future« was the band’s motto right from the start and it speaks volumes about their musical positioning – not only in contemporary jazz, but when it comes to old musical traditions and new music as well. The album »The Sixth Decade – from Paris to Paris« was recorded in 2020 at the Parisian festival »Sons d’Hiver«, thus also paying homage to the place where it all began. The Guardian writes about the interplay between the old and new guard: » It’s heartwarming to hear the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s devoted heirs so ready to carry the story on.«

'Jangi' Folklore Ensemble

Buganda Music Ensemble

Court music comes to the Elbphilharmonie. The Buganda Music Ensemble comes from the Kingdom of Buganda, which was founded in the 14th century. The territory of the pre-colonial state lies in eastern Africa, in what is now the modern state of Uganda. The ensemble is led by Albert Bisaso Ssempeke, a renowned virtuoso on the ennanga arched harp and the endongo bowl lyre. Another of the formation’s key instruments is the amadinda, a bulky xylophone-like instrument that is played by three musicians at the same time and that boasts an incredible power. European art music composers such as John Cage and György Ligeti have also been inspired by the polyrhythm and microtonality of Bugandan music. How exactly the ancient composers of Buganda developed their compositions is still a mystery, but it is known that they composed on the ennanga arched harp. Various drums also belong to the Buganda Music Ensemble, whose complex melodic and rhythmic patterns produce fascinating effects and tonal illusions that gradually intensify into a mesmerising ritualistic sound. As is often the case in traditional African music, this is also a magical dialogue with the spirits of the ancestors.

Ensemble Resonanz

Why would an ensemble that made its name performing rarities from early and contemporary music then turn to the most successful oratorio of the Baroque? Ensemble Resonanz would presumably answer, »Christmas without the Christmas Oratorio is only half the story. As often as you may have heard or played the piece, you still want to hear or play it again.« The ensemble has been performing its own version of Bach’s Christmas classic for six years now – pared down and with unconventional instrumentation, a little like a concert at home for friends. The concert hall becomes a sitting room, the musicians become a choir, and the work becomes chamber music with Baroque violas, electric guitar and vintage keyboards.

Ensemble Micrologus

The rediscovery of music from the Italian Middle Ages – over the last 40 years, nobody has clothed it in such exciting and varied sounds as the Ensemble Micrologus. In their programme »Napoli aragonese«, the musicians travel back to the heyday of courtly music in 15th century Naples, where the entire panorama of French, Italian and Spanish styles mingled. The musicians led by singer Patrizia Bovi have been performing theme programmes since 1984. In their varied concerts, it is first and foremost the music of Italy between the 12th and 15th centuries, from both the secular and sacred spheres, that they bring to life for our times. Patrizia Bovi, wind player Goffredo Degli Esposti and Gabriele Russo, who focuses on the strings, attach great importance to new interpretations: They use ethno-musicological research to develop these into singing and playing techniques and by reconstructing old instruments. The Venetian carnival, the story of Robin Hood and Maid Marian or the music in the Tuscan novels of the Trecento have already been the subject of Bovi’s many stage productions. In the »Napoli aragonese«« programme, everything revolves around secular music at the Aragonese court in Naples. In the 15th century, the court band was leading among Europe’s royal orchestras. In a fruitful exchange, they cultivated a variety of Italian, Spanish and French styles such as ballata and barzelleta, canción and roundeaux.

ECHO Ensemble

Leicht und luftig, mal tänzerisch, mal nachdenklich und wieder fröhlich klingt Poulencs Sinfonietta. Heiter muteten auch die Briefe des schicksalsgebeutelten Malers Vincent van Gogh und die Farbe Blau auf seinen Bildern an. Sie waren Ausgangspunkt für die Komposition des Briten Julian Anderson. Hingegen ist der Mörder der schwindsüchtigen Berenice in der gleichnamigen zeitgenössischen Oper vom Weiß ihrer Zähne angezogen – der österreichische Komponist Johannes Maria Staud schrieb „Berenice“ nach einer schaurigen Erzählung von Edgar Allan Poe. Finster dräut schließlich das Weltenende durch einen Kometeneinschlag in der Oper „Le Grand Macabre“ des Ungarn György Ligeti. Drei Koloratur-Arien der Geheimpolizei-Chefin aus der Oper umfassen die „Mysteries of the Macabre“, als Arrangement für Kammerensemble und Sopran. Das Echo Ensemble für Neue Musik der Eisler und die ukrainische Sopranistin Oksana Pynchuk widmen sich unter Leitung von Manuel Nawri diesem heiter-gruseligen Programm.