ensemble unitedberlin & friends

Hamza El Din from Sudan, Britain-based Moroccan Brahim Kerkour, Amr Okba from Egypt who now lives in Austria, Paris-based Karim Haddad from Lebanon, Munich-born Iyad Mohammad who is the son of Jordanian parents who originated from the Palestine, and Palestinian-Israeli composer Samir Odeh-Tamimi, who has long been based in Germany and currently lives in Berlin.

In different constellations, from mixed ensemble via string quartet to contrabass solo, works are confronted with one another in this multilayered concert that offer answers to the question of the relationship to the musicians’ own musical tradition and allow them to be expressed: integration, exclusion, critique and conscious disassociation become perceptible.

A collective of Western instruments is confronted by a soloist ensemble with Arab instruments in the form of musicians Bassem Hawar (Djoze), N. N. (Nay), Marwan Al Karjousli (Oud) and Hanan El-Shemouty (Quanoun) that, from an acoustic and technical perspective, highlights the contrast but also the commonalities of the musical traditions and practices.