18th Annual World Sacred Music Festival & Tour

The 18th Annual World Sacred Music Festival will take place in the city of Fez. It opens on June 8th and continues through June 16th, 2012. The theme is «Re-enchanting the World» and pays special tribute to the great Persian poet « Omar Khayyam », who is very well known by his famous Quartets "Rubaeyyat."

Below is the detailed day to day program for the 18th Edition of the Fes World Sacred Music Festival.

Friday, June 8: Grand opening Evening

Bab Al Makina – 8:30 pm
Festival Grand opening Evening
"Homage to Omar Khayyam"
A musical directed by Tony Gatlif

Tony Gatlif is well known for directing musicals and making films that capture the essence and emotion of Tsigan, oriental or Sufi Music. His work of the great poet Omar Khayyam will symbolize the theme of the 18th Annual World Sacred Music Festival, re-enchanting the world. Tony Catlif works in collaboration with Dr. Faouzi Skali and Alain Weber. Dr. Faouzi Skali is the Director of Fez Spirit Foundation and an expert on Sufism doctrine. Alain Weber is the Artistic Director of the Sacred Music Festival. This powerful collaboration will introduce to you artists from central Asia and other parts of the world in this improvised scenography.

 

Saturday, June 9

Bat'ha Museum – 4:00 pm
Gipsy Sentimento Ensemble directed by Gyszia Horvath – Hungary

Gyszia Horvath is a renowned violinist and a master of both classical repertoire as well as the Tsigan
music of Central Europe.

Bab Al Makina, 8:30 pm
The roots of Blues and Gospel
Work of Archie Shepp - USA

Archie Shepp is a great Jazz and Blues artist, who can trace blues to its origins of Gospel, an art form deeply anchored in his heart.

Sunday, June 10

 Bat'ha Museum, 4:00 pm

Sheikh Yasin al Tuhami Sufi Madih - Egypt

Sheikh Yasinal Tuhami masters the classical great work of Sufi poets in his own theatrical way. As it is unique in its own way, he sometimes takes scholarly Islamic music and makes it more accessible to "ordinary" people. His interpretation of these poems, remain true to the people of Gallabiyas in the outback of the Nile.

Bab Al Makina – 8:30 pm

Moneim Sharif

Monday, June 11

Bat'ha Museum – 4:00 pm
Abeer Nehme – Armenean, Syriac and Byzantin Chants – Lebanon

Abeer Nehme revives the old emotion of these Syrian chants and the diversity of oriental Christian
traditions of Arab and Armenian Gregorian and Orthodox Heritage.

Night at the Medina I:

Dar Mokri – 8:00 pm and 10:00 pm
Vahdat Sisters - Iran.
Sufi mystical poetry and chants

Dar Adiyel – 8:00pm and 10:00 pm
Mory Djely Kouyate and Jean-Phillipe Rykiel – France Guinee.

This is one of most successful African fusions: an African vocalist and a piano, in a naked and harmonious fashion, reveal the profound emotion of African soul.

Bat'ha Museum – 9:00 pm
The Taraf of Haidouks – Romania.

This is a famous Romanian Ensemble, called the Rom Ensemble, who sing traditional Romanian poems and poems from the last neophytes of the Clejani village.

Dar Music School 10:30 pm
Ihsane Rmiki – Morocco
The Art of Mouwashahats from Andalucia (Muslim Spain).

Beyond her Moroccan Heritage, this great traditional artist will sing Samaa and Madih. They capture one of the Sufi themes, pure love, and celebrate the joy and ecstasy that it provokes.

Tuesday, June 12

Bat'ha Museum – 4:00 pm
Classical Show in Collaboration with MITO (Milano – Torino Festival)
The Mass of Guillaume Dufay

Night at the Medina II:

Dar Moqri – 8:00 and 10:00 pm
Mukhtiyar Ali – Rajasthan India
Mystical and devotional chants of the Poet Kabir

Dar Ideyel 8:00 and 10 pm
Cherifa, the Poetess of the Atlas Mountains – Morocco

Batha Museum – 9:00 pm
Haim Louk and the Arabo-Andalus Ensemble of Fez directed by Mohammed Briouel
Judeo-Arab Chants

Dar School of Music 10:30
"Arabesque"
Work of Christian Boissel
Rocio Marquez, Chants

Wednesday, June 13

Bat'ha Museum – 4:00 pm
Noor Ensemble – France-Iran

The Noor Ensemble sprang from a sacred western tradition that existed between the 15th and 17th centuries, the spiritual and mystical chants of Persian and Kurdish lineage. This musical work particularly reaches the profound serenity of spiritual sentiment.

Night at the Medina III:

Dar Mokri – 8:00 pm and 10:00 pm
Rompesaraguey – Cuba

This group of Sancti Spiritus of seven members comes from a very small town in Cuba. Vocals, guitar, cymbals, counter bass, trumpet, banjo, keyboard, and the magnificent voice of its soloist, Niurka Cancio interpret very well the spiritual tonadas of the puntu peasant in the style of la Santeria.

Dar Adiyl – 8:00 pm and 10:00 pm
Beatrice Lalanne – France
Occitany chants.

Bat'ha Museum — 9:00 pm
The Cantique of The Cantiques & Homage to Mahmoud Darwish by Rudolphe Burger
This is a meditative interpretation through the Canticle, or the "Song of Songs," of Solomon and Mahmoud Darwish's poem "So Fly the Doves."
Ensemble:

• Rodolphe Burger, vocals and guitar
• Mehdi Haddab, oud
• Rayess Bek, Arab chant
• Ruth Rosenthal, Hebrew chant
• Yves Dormoy, electronic clarinet
• Julien Perraudeau, bass and keyboard

Music School — 10:30 pm
Ensemble Ibn Arabi – Morocco

Thursday, June 14

Bat'ha Museum – 4:00 pm
I Muvrini – Corsica, France

This is the second invitation to the Fez festival for this out-standing vocal ensemble.

Bab Al Makina – 10:30 pm
The Samaa

This will be a series of spiritual Sufi chants of Eastern and Western traditions.

Friday, June 15

Bat'ha Museum – 4:00 pm
Sanam Marvi – Pakistan
Sufi Chants

Sanam Marvi is a young singer from Pakistan, born in Hyderabad in the heart of Sindh. She sings with devotion celebrated Sufi poems, such as Bulleh Shah, in the particular style of Kafi of Penjab, between Sindhi and Sikh harmonies.

Bab Al Makina – 8:30 pm
Biophilia – Bjork

Bjork will introduce her visionary project, putting together a show of music and videos illustrating advanced audio-visual technology. This project has the goal to explore the effect of sound in the infinite spread of the universe and the planetary systems based on atomic structures. This is above all a new method for Bjork to introduce us to her new theory to enlighten the world of today, taking us to another dimension of musical enjoyment.

Saturday, June 16

Bat'ha Museum – 4:00 pm
Anuj Mishra – kathak dance – Indian
He is a genius of kathak dance.

Anuj Mishra has inherited the grace and the nobleness of this intense, classical Indian dance. Between the 12th and 17th centuries, the kathak was practiced in the sumptuous Moghls emperors, but before even this era, it was performed in the courts of the Hindu maharajas. From an artistic standpoint, totally devotional, the kathak becomes an even more refined dance, encountering considerable elements from Persian culture and the esthetic from Muslim tradition.

Bab Al Makina – 8:30 pm
Joan Baez – USA

Joan Baez has become an icon of American history in popular music, side-by-side with Woody Guthery and Bob Dylan. She has worked tirelessly to maintain a world career, always profoundly engaged in her fight for freedom. In her march towards Washington for equal rights and liberty in 1963, she notably sang the famous spiritual hymn, "We Shall Overcome," which is an example of her spiritual conviction throughout her career and lifetime.