Tessera Ensemble
Tessera Ensemble: Sara Hamidi vocals, Roosmarijn Tuenter vocals/violin, Tineke Postma soprano/alto saxophone, Bram van Sambeek bassoon, Yasamin Shahhosseini ud, Mehdi Rostami setar, Tony Overwater double bass/violone, Naghmeh Farahmand percussion
NAJWA: Nawras Al Taky vocals, Emine Bostanci kamancheh, Nadia Marak flute, Kim Jaeger piano, Rémy Dielemans double bass, Modar Salama percussion, Christian Palmieri drums, Nizar Rohana music coach
The Tessera Ensemble is a musical encounter between musicians from Dutch and Eastern music culture led by Tony Overwater (double bass and violone) and Naghmeh Farahmand (percussion). Every edition of NewLands Tessera will be featured in variable line-ups. At the previous edition Tony Overwater shared the artistic direction with Kinan Azmeh.
In 2016 Tessera received great acclaim from both audience and press, after which NewLands decided to program the ensemble for every following edition, with a different geographical focus every time. This year that is Iran, which has a rich and ancient music history. Tessera connects this focus to the 2018 festival theme, Ode to Women: the Iranian guests will include three female musicians.
Dutch double bassist Tony Overwater has great passion and knowledge when it comes to Arabic and Persian music. He regularly performs in the Middle East and Iran, and in The Netherlands he could recently be heard alongside Kayhan Kalhor, Hossein Alizadeh and Mohammad Motamedi, among others.
Percussionist Naghmeh Farahmand has performed with many internationally recognized ensembles, in Iran and abroad. She shared the stage with Iranian ney master Hassan Nahid and vocalist Hengameh Akhavan, among others. In 2010 she moved to Canada, where she released her debut album Unbound. Naghmeh plays daf as well as darbuka (doumbek), dayereh, cajon, udu and drums. Alongside her international career as a performer she has great passion for sharing the art of Persian percussion, giving masterclasses all over the world.
The Iranian and Dutch musicians will collaboratively develop a repertory around the wonderous melodies and complex modules of the radif (a collection of ancient music pieces forming the foundation of Persian music) and the harmony and polyphony of Western music.
NAJWA
Supporting act of Tessera at this concert is the group NAJWA. ‘Straight from the heart’, is the free translation of this Arabic name. It is the common principle for these passionate and extraordinarily talented musicians. They encountered each other during the master class of the festival in 2016 and have been together ever since. In the past two years they were guided by Nizar Rohana in developing a repertory in which all members have left their signatures. The compositions are more than just hybrid styles; they represent a new sound emanating from tradition, where the musicians are open to the unknown and unheard, creating an original style. NAJWA has performed at TivoliVredenburg, Splendor and recently at Grachtenfestival. The group has a rotating line-up. At this concert the ensemble will include rising star Emine Bostanci
