New Syrian Music Recalls Happier Times
Winter 2015 | by David Patrick Stearns
Though planned for years, the Dec. 5th concert by The Crossing and Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture’s Takht Ensemble at Bryn Mawr College presents new music by Syrian composers right at a time when their homeland is in civil war. However, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s David Patrick Stearns reports that the music isn’t about current strife, but earlier, more peaceful times.
David Patrick Stearns: That’s Hanna Khoury, music director of Al Bustan Seeds of Culture, which commissioned composers Kareem Roustom and Kinan Abou-afach to write choral works based on Andalusian poetry, some of it dating back to the 11th century. For Kinan Abou-afach, who has lived in Philadelphia for five years, writing Of Nights and Solace was mostly about meditations on love.
Kinan Abou-afach: For me, this was really taking a break of what’s happening in Syria. I tried my best not to be influenced by the amount destruction and death that is happening there. This was my vacation.
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