Sanaz & friends | Special guest: Mohamed Najem
Zeit & Ort
Über die Veranstaltung
Sanaz: voice, Benjamin Stein: santoor, tar, baglama and oud Steffen Thormählen: Percussion, Uwe Böttcher: double bass, violin and viola Sanaz's songs and poems really get under your skin. They are about longing: for love, freedom and for self-determination. Sometimes with a gentle, sometimes with a strong voice, but always impressive, always provocative, the poet and singer recites her mystical texts. Further she also sets these texts to music and performs them together with her repertoire of Turkish and Azerbaijani folk songs. Sanaz comes from the Azerbaijani territory of Iran. The silencing of all female voices and the threat of reprisals against a critical, creative woman caused her to leave her home country in 2008 and move to Germany in 2010, after two years spent in Istanbul. She began her musical career in 2012 with the music group "Mah-e Manouche", which won the sponsorship award of the cultural department of the town of Wuppertal in 2017/18. Encouraged by the immensely positive feedback and praise of many fellow artists, musicians and critics she started a new project in 2019, in which she recites her own texts in Persian and German and sings songs from Persia, Azerbaijan and Turkey. She is accompanied by an illustrious ensemble of outstanding musicians: Benjamin Stein on oud, baglama, santoor and tar, by Uwe Böttcher on double bass, violin and viola and by Steffen Thormählen on various percussion instruments. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmZ7aZmWZI5EM716Kbue5aw/videos
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Mohamed Najem represents a new generation of highly-trained musicians from the Middle-East. With ears and eyes for the whole world, he uses classical techniques in an Arabic interpretation, and thus creates an original sound and style on his clarinet. His compositions reflect an eclectic combination of rhythms and melodies.
Born in 1984 in Jerusalem and raised in Bethlehem, Najem won the first prize in Arabic Music at the 2005 Palestinian national competition. He started clarinet and nay at the Edward Saïd National Conservatory of Music (ESNCM) in Bethlehem and graduated in 2011 from the Regional Conservatory of Music of Angers in France, with Professor Emilie Jacquin.
In 2011, Najem returned to Palestine, where he became the first Palestinian professional clarinet teacher. He has taught clarinet and nay at the ESNCM in Ramallah, Nablus and Bethlehem for three years. He was also the academic supervisor of the ESNCM Ramallah branch and the head of the winds section between 2011 and 2014.
Najem is a founding member of the Palestine National Orchestra, Palestine’s first professional orchestra created in 2011. He has played as a soloist for the Palestinian Youth Orchestra for several years. A versatile and in demand performer in Palestine, he has performed and recorded with several Palestinian and international music groups and projects, including traditional, popular and classical ensembles, played in local and international festivals.
Today, Najem is a freelance musician and resides in Paris, where he is developing his project “Mohamed Najem and Friends”. He also plays in a duo with the German accordionist Manfred Leuchter (Encounter).
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Fotos @ Manfred Leuchter, Lucie Ahmad, reza Rashidpour