Art of Duo

NewLands Festival 2018 brings different musical worlds together in two duo concerts: Rima Khcheich & Maarten Ornstein and Sara Hamidi & Mehdi Rostami

Rima Khcheich & Maarten Ornstein

For years they have been playing together, singer Rima Khcheich and bass clarinetist Maarten Ornstein. It all started in late 2012 on Rima’s album Hawa, which was followed by many concerts. Six years later the collaboration is blossoming. A recent example is their new trio with lutist Mike Fentross, which premieres in January 2019.

This evening they will appear as a duo for the very first time, performing a number of specially arranged compositions for this concert (by Mohamad Abdel Wahab, among others) from the classical Arabic tradition. The exciting line-up indicates that Rima Khcheich and Maarten Ornstein do not fear the unknown or the experiment and that they strive for ultimate beauty.

In 2016, Rima Khcheich made her previous appearance at the festival as part of the renowned ensemble Tessera, who received 4 stars in de Volkskrant, impressing the audience with her wide range and timbre. Her most recent album Washwishni, which was made with Ducth musicians including Maarten Ornstein, was listed as one of the top 10 world music releases by Misha Andriessen, reviewer of Trouw.

‘If politicians with respect for both cultures would take an example from the wonderfully flexible Arabic-Western mix of singer Rima Khcheich, the world would be a different place’ (Music Frames).

Sara Hamidi & Mehdi Rostami

The audience is invited to travel from Lebanon and The Netherlands to Paris and Teheran. Paris is the current home of Sara Hamidi. Born in Esfahan in Iran, she has practiced the ‘radif’ classical repertory for several years with Master Maedeh Tabatabaei, who himself is a pupil of the great singing master Mohammad Reza Shadjarian. She has been an opera student at the Conservatoire de Saint-Maur near Paris. Today, she combines teaching music in Paris and touring with several ensembles in numerous European countries. Today, Sara Hamidi is one of the most promising female singers of her generation.

During NewLands Sara will appear on stage in an intimate dialogue with Mehdi Rostami, an internationally renowned setar player. Mehdi was born in 1980 in Kermanshah. He started learning music by playing the setar in 1986 with Siavash Nourpour. In 1987 he participated in Ebrahim Sepehri’s classes. He learned the advanced repertory of Persian classical music with masters of the tradition including Mohammadreza Lotfi and Hossein Alizadeh. He also took part in Kayhan Kalhor and Mohammad Reza Lotfi’s master classes. He received a BA in music from the Sooreh Institute of Fine Arts. Today he is part of the AWJ Trio with Maya Youssef and Adib Rostami and he performs on various international stages.

 

Rima Khcheich & Maarten Ornstein
Sara Hamidi & Mehdi Rostami