Arabic Music Days: Afro-Arab Connections

For the past ten years, the Arabic Music Days have been an integral part of the program at the Pierre Boulez Saal, bringing the rich musical tradition of the Middle East to life through concerts featuring a wide variety of ensembles.

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This season, the festival is taking a new direction. “We want to showcase African cultures in their Arab dimension,” explains curator Naseer Shamma. “This expansion has to do not only with geographical realities, but also with shared memory, with rhythms that arise from the earth itself, and with voices that have remained alive in the human spirit throughout the ages.”

Shamma—who will not be performing himself this year but will instead present a solo recital in March—has invited five ensembles featuring musicians from various African countries whose musical identities are shaped by centuries-old traditions.

“This music has been passed down from one generation to the next,” he says, “not merely as a legacy, but as a living, breathing organism that transforms and evolves, constantly reaffirming that what springs from the human soul never perishes.” On the first evening, the audience will hear the Al Multaqa ensemble, led by Ahmad Shamma, whose members hail from Iraq, Mali, Nigeria, and South Sudan.