Louth Contemporary Music Society in association with Drogheda Arts Festival presents Arabian Waltz with Rabih Abou Khalil , the EQ Ensemble and Elisaveta Blumina in St.Peter’s Church of Ireland Drogheda 4 May 2012 at 8pm.
The shrewd, witty and inventive Abou Khalil – a world musician years before the phrase became a label -makes the hot, staccato Middle Eastern flavour and the seamless grooves of jazz mingle as if they were always meant to. John Fordham The Guardian
For nearly a quarter century, Lebanese-born oud master and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil has defied all of the artificial boundaries to create a musical world entirely his own. With his first Irish commission for Louth Contemporary Music Society, Rabih once again proves to be a truly visionary artist.
The concert will feature a magical programme of music ranging from Elisaveta Blumina performing piano works by Fazil Say and Alan Hovhaness to The EQ Ensemble performing John Surman’s Mimosa and Leylek Geldi for string quartet and bass. Rabih will perform solo on the oud and then will be joined by the EQ Ensemble for the world premiere of a new commission for string quartet, bass and oud. The new commission, funded by the Arts Council, will receive its world premiere on 4 May 2012 as part of the Drogheda Arts Festival.
Born and raised in the cosmopolitan climate of Beirut in the sixties and seventies, Rabih Abou-Khalil leaned to play the oud at the age of four. In the Arab world, this instrument is as popular as the guitar or the piano in the West and is the composer’s instrument par excellence. An oud is a form of lute or mandolin played principally in Arab countries. The Lebanese civil war forced him to leave his country in 1978 to study classical flute in the German city of Munich, where he was tutored at the Munich Academy of Music by Walther Theurer.
Tickets for the concert cost €10 and are available from www.ctb.ie ( 0818 205 205)or the festival box office 041 983 3946 or at www.droghedaartsfestival.ie. LCMS will hold a wine reception at the interval for all ticket holders.
Rabih Abou Khalil’s first Irish commission was funded by the Arts Council of Ireland.The Arabian Waltz concert is funded by Create Louth and the Arts Council of Ireland. Louth Contemporary Music Society is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland
The Drogheda Arts Festival, the first festival of the summer, will run from 3rd – 7th May with new theatre, music, family events, visual arts and lots more.
Further Information & listings see below or log onto: www.louthcms.org or www.droghedaartsfestival.ie