John Kameel Farah, composer-pianist
Improvisations and Compositions

Wednesday June 20, 8:00 p.m.
The Chapel, Victoria University, 91 Charles St. West
tickets: $5 or PWYC

Premieres of new works and improvisations by Farah,
Julia Seager, harp
Scott Good, trombone
Jeff Wilson, percussion

   "I've long been influenced by Arabic classical music, and as an
   improvisor I've had an interest to play Maqam (Arabic/Persian modes),
   but the limitations of the fixed tuning of the piano have forced me
   to search for other instruments capable of realising scales with
   quarter-tones.  By re-tuning a few notes on the harp, you've opened
   up the doorway to several maqam, although with limited potential for
   modulation.  So I wrote "Olive Tree," a suite of three pieces, composed
   in Maqam Rast, Bayyati and Huzam respectively, for harpist Julia
   Seager to perform.  One point of debate was finding the line of what
   was idiomatic to the Maqam system, and what was removed from it, and
   making something that was my own and yet still tenuously coming out
   of that tradition."- John Kameel Farah

Farah will also premiere a solo piano piece by Toronto composer Eldritch
Priest: "This work offers no name..."

Included on the programme will be a performance of a classical Arabic piece
"Samai Nawa Athar" realised on the piano and accompanied on frame drum by
Jeff Wilson, and an ambient piece for solo trombome played by Scott Good.

Piano improvisations will be randomly dispersed throughout the evening.

John Kameel Farah <[log in to unmask]>
http://webhome.idirect.com/~ffarah
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416-432-2305