The Program in Near Eastern Studies, the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, and Richardson Auditorium present Of Roads and Homes, the latest work by Syrian composer Kinan Abou-Afach, performed with the Al-Bustan Ensemble.
Kinan Abou-Afach is a rarity in the musical world: a virtuoso performer on cello who is equally fluent in the classical Arab music tradition, Western classical music and contemporary musical idioms. His recent compositions are based on themes that are pervasive and universal to the human species, but also especially timely now in an age of ongoing crises. Abou-afach’s latest work takes inspiration from stories of 12 individuals and their families documented in (DIS)PLACED: Philadelphia | Expressions of Identity in Transition. It is a meditation on themes of home, displacement, and exile, past and present, in America, the Middle East, and beyond. Commissioned and premiered by Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, the composition to be performed at Princeton is a continuous one hour program featuring oud, percussion, clarinet, and strings, with intervals of electronic ambiances and narration.
Kinan Abou-afach – cello
Issam Rafea – oud
Vasko Dukovski – clarinet
Veronica Jurkiewicz – viola
Rebecca Harris – violin
David Brodie – bass
Hafez Kotain – percussion
Denise Valentine – narration
