New Film of The Prisoner featuring Christopher Bozeka
- On June 18, 2025
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In News
0
From an April 2025 Musiqa presentation of The Prisoner, in a new chamber transcription featuring tenor Christopher Bozeka, and conducted by Emily Senturia. Film by Full Media Jacket
CBC Radio Canada Feature: The Revelation Hour
- On June 10, 2025
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In News, Reviews/Press
0
The June 7-8th edition of CBC Radio Canada’s In Concert, broadcast nationally and hosted by Paolo Pietropaolo, will include a feature on my music as its The Revelation Hour. Now available free on demand. The broadcast includes performances of Six Bagatelles, Visions from Another World, Paganini Reverie and Al Hakawati.
Musiqa Welcomes New Board Member Maiko Sasaki
- On June 10, 2025
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In Musiqa, News, Reviews/Press
0
Musiqa Artistic Board (L to R): Marcus Maroney, Karim Al-Zand, Maiko Sasaki, Pierre Jalbert, Anthony BrandtMusiqa is proud to welcome Maiko Sasaki to our artist board! Maiko is a distinguished clarinetist known for her dynamic performances as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. A regular performer onstage with Musiqa, she joins founding artist board members Karim Al-Zand, Anthony Brandt, Pierre Jalbert and Marcus Karl Maroney in their ongoing quest to bring adventurous and inspiring programming to our audiences.
Houston Symphony Releases Film of Al Jazari’s Ingenious Clocks
- On June 10, 2025
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In News
0
The Houston Symphony Orchestra has released the March 15, 2025 livestream premiere of Al Jazari’s Ingenious Clocks, led by music director Juraj Valčuha.
Moveable Do podcast interview
- On December 07, 2024
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In News, Reviews/Press
0
An interview from the most recent episode of Moveable Do podcast, hosted by Steve Danielson.
Al Hakawati concert film released
- On December 07, 2024
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In EVENTS, News
0
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln has just released a concert film of the September 21st European premiere of Al Hakawati (The Story Teller), featuring Miriam Khalil, and conducted by music director Cristian Măcelaru. The work is a co-commission of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln and Orchestre National de France.
Al Hakawati presents fragments from an opera-in-progress entitled The Book of Tales. The opera is inspired by a recent discovery about a beloved story collection: the so-called “Arabian Nights.” The exact provenance of these medieval Arabic tales—properly known as Alf Laylah wa-Laylah (One Thousand and One Nights)—has always been something of a mystery. That all changed in 1993 when a forgotten 18th century Arabic manuscript was found in the Vatican library. It was a travel memoir written by a 75-year-old Syrian storyteller named Hanna Diyab. It recounts how, as a young man in 1707, the young Diyab had embarked on an extraordinary, years-long journey to Europe. His incredible adventures culminated in a meeting with the Sun King, King Louis XIV, in the halls of Versailles. Diyab told entrancing stories to everyone he met in his travels, including to Antoine Galland, a translator and archaeologist in Paris. It was Galland who, in 1710, first introduced Western readers to the stories of Ali Baba and Aladdin in Les Mille et une Nuits—though Galland makes no mention of Diyab. The storyteller returned to Aleppo in 1709 and eventually became a successful cloth merchant. He seems to have had no idea how far his captivating stories had travelled.
The opera connects stories and storytellers across time and place: from the present day, to the Ancien Régime of France, to the imaginary world of Scheherazade. The fragments in Al Hakawati comprise four “scenes” that feature the opera’s principal female characters.
1. I shiver, I tremble
The famed storyteller Scheherazade contemplates her precarious circumstances: each night she tells stories to the murderous Shahryar to postpone her execution.
I shiver, I tremble,
Trapped in a story of woe.
Frightening and violent.
Beyond these walls, this sky,
Another storyteller wanders free.
I would dance with her, my sister,
As the world shares her stories.
A different time, and place,
Another hakawati gathers friends.
I would sing with him, my brother,
As the world shares his stories.
Worlds interwoven with words and wishes.
Another Scheherazade, from afar.
I shiver, I tremble,
Trapped in a story of woe.
Frightened, but not silent.
2. He sleeps, this one
Shahryar is finally asleep. Consumed with fury, Scheherazade prepares to set his bed alight.
He sleeps, this one…
Sleeps the sleep of cruelest kings,
and of wickedness;
a callous and cold sleep, deep.
I seethe, inside…
Seethe with rage that terror brings,
and its bitterness;
with each breath left to breathe, seethe.
I can no longer weep.
The wound is too deep.
Sleep! In a burning keep!
Sleep! Sleep! The righteous flames will leap!
3. Dance of the seven swords (orchestra)
Murjana dances for her husband, Ali Baba, and a visiting merchant. She alone has discerned their guest’s true identity: he is Nadir, the leader of a band of thieves. He plans to kill her witless husband, who has foolishly stolen their treasure. At the climax of the dance she dispatches the villain.
4. For all I know
Tarina Safar, a modern-day scholar of medieval Arabic, has discovered Hanna Diyab’s manuscript in the Vatican library. She marvels at the power of stories and of storytellers.*
For all I know,
a story has wings, that it might soar—
fledged in a mind,
flying from our lips,
flocking to eager ears,
to open our dreaming eyes—
homing to our hearts.
Swirling stories—in droves they take a murmuring shape,
in forms that scrape the drawn dawn—
tracing a truth in the sky.
نبي الشعب
لعنة الملوك
حكواتي حكواتي
اشرح لنا حكمة الاشياء
For all I know,
a tale is a pilgrim, that it might journey—
migrating from world to world,
message in its satchel,
moving through ages,
arriving here—
to camp in our hearts.
Traveling tales—a caravan with load of amber,
flutes and tambour the dawn down—
leaving lessons in the sand.
Hakawati, teller of tales:
the people’s prophet,
the curse of kings.
Hakawati, Hakawati!
Show us the wisdom of things!
*Safar’s character is fictional, but she is inspired by the American scholar of Islam, Nabia Abbott (1897–1981), the first female professor at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute. Abbott did some of the earliest research into the origins of the Thousand and One Nights.
Cinderella presented at Miller Outdoor Theater
- On October 20, 2024
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In Musiqa, News
0
Musiqa had its debut at Houston’s iconic Miller Outdoor Theater, with a characteristic program of inter-arts works. The evening program included a presentation of Lotte Reiniger’s 1922 silent silhouette film, Cinderella, with live music, conducted by Yue Bao.
Al Hakawati Receives European Première
- On October 01, 2024
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In EVENTS, News, Reviews/Press
0
Al Hakawati received its European premiere on September 22 at the Kölner Philharmonie, in a performance by soprano Miriam Khalil and the WDR Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Cristian Măcelaru. Also on the program was Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No.1 ( Sheku Kanneh-Mason), and Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Op. 35. Al Hakawati is a co-commission of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln and the Orchestre National de France.
Al Hakawati (The Storyteller) presents fragments from an opera-in-progress entitled The Book of Tales. The opera is inspired by a recent discovery about a beloved story collection, the so-called “Arabian Nights.” The exact provenance of these medieval Arabic tales, properly known as Alf Laylah wa-Laylah [One Thousand and One Nights], has always been something of a mystery. That all changed in 1993 when a forgotten 18th century Arabic manuscript was found in the Vatican library. It was a travel memoir written by a 75-year-old Syrian storyteller named Hanna Diyab. In 1707, the young Diyab had embarked on an extraordinary, years-long journey to Europe. His incredible adventures culminated in a meeting with the Sun King, King Louis XIV, in the halls of Versailles. Diyab told his entrancing stories to everyone he met in his travels, including to Antoine Galland, a translator and archaeologist in Paris. It was Galland who, in 1710, first introduced Western readers to the stories of Ali Baba and Aladdin in Les Mille et une Nuits—though Galland makes no mention of the storyteller. Diyab returned to Syria in 1709 and eventually became a successful cloth merchant in Aleppo.
He seems to have had no idea how far his captivating stories had travelled.
The opera connects stories and storytellers across time and place: from the present day, to the Ancien Régime of France, to the imaginary world of Scheherazade. And, though the “frame story” is Diyab’s, the most significant characters in the story are women. The fragments in Al Hakawati comprise four “scenes” that feature the opera’s three principal female characters.
Al Hakawati Premiered at 2024 Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music
- On August 30, 2024
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In EVENTS, News
0
Al Hakawati, a new work for soprano and orchestra received its premiere on August 2nd in Santa Cruz, CA at the 2024 Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, with soprano Miriam Khalil and conductor Cristian Mӑcelaru. The work will be repeated on September 21 by the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln in Germany. The work is a co-commission of Cabrillo, WDR and l’Orchestre National de France (who will do the work in 2026).
Al Hakawati (The Storyteller) presents fragments from an opera-in-progress entitled The Book of Tales. The opera is inspired by a recent discovery about a beloved story collection, the so-called “Arabian Nights.” The exact provenance of these medieval Arabic tales, properly known as Alf Laylah wa-Laylah [One Thousand and One Nights], has always been something of a mystery. That all changed in 1993 when a forgotten 18th century Arabic manuscript was found in the Vatican library. It was a travel memoir written by a 75-year-old Syrian storyteller named Hanna Diyab. In 1707, the young Diyab had embarked on an extraordinary, years-long journey to Europe. His incredible adventures culminated in a meeting with the Sun King, King Louis XIV, in the halls of Versailles. Diyab told his entrancing stories to everyone he met in his travels, including to Antoine Galland, a translator and archaeologist in Paris. It was Galland who, in 1710, first introduced Western readers to the stories of Ali Baba and Aladdin in Les Mille et une Nuits—though Galland makes no mention of the storyteller. Diyab returned to Syria in 1709 and eventually became a successful cloth merchant in Aleppo.He seems to have had no idea how far his captivating stories had travelled.
The opera connects stories and storytellers across time and place: from the present day, to the Ancien Régime of France, to the imaginary world of Scheherazade. And, though the “frame story” is Diyab’s, the most significant characters in the story are women. The fragments in Al Hakawati comprise four “scenes” that feature the opera’s three principal female characters.
2024 Barlow Prize
- On August 30, 2024
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In News, Reviews/Press
0
The Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University proudly announces the Barlow Prize recipient for 2024.
After reviewing 384 submissions from 47 countries, the judging panel awarded Karim Al-Zand the $15,000 Barlow Prize to compose a major new work for organ, to be premiered by a consortium of performers which will include Chelsea Chen, Don Cook, Janette Fishell, and Bradley Hunter Welch.
Known for his “strong and startlingly lovely” music (Boston Globe), Canadian-American composer Karim Al-Zand’s compositions span a wide range of influences and inspirations. His diverse portfolio includes solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works that draw from a rich tapestry of sources such as graphic art, myths, world folk music, and his Middle Eastern heritage. With accolades including the ArtSong Prize and the Arts and Letters Award in Music, Al-Zand’s innovative compositions continue to leave a significant mark internationally. A founding member of Musiqa, Houston’s premier contemporary music group, Al-Zand is a Professor of Composition and Theory at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.
Al Hakawati preview
- On August 05, 2024
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In EVENTS, News, Uncategorized
0
I recently spoke to Jeff Kaliss of The San Francisco Classical Voice about the premiere performance of Al Hakawati at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.
Al Hakawati @ Cabrillo Preview
- On July 22, 2024
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In EVENTS, News
0
I Care If You Listen previews the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music summer 2024 schedule, which includes the premiere of Al Hakawati. Co-Commissioned by Cabrillo, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln & Orchestre National de France, the work was written for Canadian soprano Miriam Khalil and conductor by Cristian Măcelaru and will receive its premiere at the festival on its opening concert Friday August 2nd.
Al Hakawati co-commissioned by Cabrillo Festival, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln & Orchestre National de France
- On May 08, 2024
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In EVENTS, News
0
A new work for soprano and orchestra Al Hakawati, co-commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln & Orchestre National de France will premiere next season, with Canadian soprano Miriam Khalil and conductor by Cristian Măcelaru. The work will receive its premiere at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music on August 2nd. A second performance with WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln is scheduled for September 21, with a following performance in Paris, TBA.
Al Hakawati (The Storyteller) presents fragments from an opera-in-progress entitled The Book of Tales. The opera is inspired by a recent discovery about a beloved story collection, the so-called “Arabian Nights.” The exact provenance of these medieval Arabic tales, properly known as Alf Laylah wa-Laylah [One Thousand and One Nights], has always been something of a mystery. That all changed in 1993 when a forgotten 18th century Arabic manuscript was found in the Vatican library. It was a travel memoir written by a 75-year-old Syrian storyteller named Hanna Diyab. In 1707, the young Diyab had embarked on an extraordinary, years-long journey to Europe. His incredible adventures culminated in a meeting with the Sun King, King Louis XIV, in the halls of Versailles. Diyab told his entrancing stories to everyone he met in his travels, including to Antoine Galland, a translator and archaeologist in Paris. It was Galland who, in 1710, first introduced Western readers to the stories of Ali Baba and Aladdin in Les Mille et une Nuits—though Galland makes no mention of the storyteller. Diyab returned to Syria in 1709 and eventually became a successful cloth merchant in Aleppo. He seems to have had no idea how far his captivating stories had travelled.
The opera connects stories and storytellers across time and place: from the present day, to the Ancien Régime of France, to the imaginary world of Scheherazade. And, though the “frame story” is Diyab’s, the most significant characters in the story are women. The fragments in Al Hakawati comprise four “scenes” that feature the opera’s three principal female characters.
1. I shiver, I tremble
The famed storyteller Scheherazade contemplates her precarious circumstances: each night she tells stories to the murderous Shahryar to postpone her execution.
2. He sleeps, this one
Shahryar is finally asleep. Consumed with fury, Scheherazade prepares to set his bed alight.
3. Dance of the seven swords (orchestra)
Murjana dances for her husband, Ali Baba, and a visiting merchant. She alone has discerned their guest’s true intent: he plans to kill her witless husband, who has foolishly stolen treasure from a band of thieves. At the dance’s climax she dispatches the villain.
4. For all I know
Tarina Safar*, a modern-day scholar of medieval Arabic, has discovered Hanna Diyab’s manuscript in the Vatican library. She marvels at the power of stories and of storytellers.
* Safar’s character is fictional, but she is inspired by the American scholar of Islam, Nabia Abbott (1897–1981), the first female professor at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute. Abbott discovered some of the earliest known fragments from the Thousand and One Nights.
Houston Symphony Orchestra commissions new work for 24-25 season
- On May 08, 2024
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In EVENTS, News
0
Al-Jazari’s Ingenious Clocks is inspired by the fantastical inventions of 12th century Islamic polymath Ismail al-Jazari: scholar, inventor, engineer, artist and mathematician. His remarkable treatise, “The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices,” describes fifty machines he engineered to perform various tasks. Coupled with his own colorful illustrations, the fountain, a band of mechanical musicians, a hydraulic “perpetual flute,” a self-cleaning washbasin, and a mechanized“butler” who prepares drinks. book evokes a fairy-tale world of automated devices: a dancing water Known as the “father of robotics” for his revolutionary work in engineering and automation, al-Jazari’s devices are fascinating both functionally and aesthetically.
But perhaps his most beautiful and captivating designs are his many mechanical clocks. These include elaborate candle clocks (triggered by dripping wax), an astronomical “castle clock,” a programmable clock of mechanical drummers (who beat out the hours!), a portable “scribe clock” and a giant “elephant clock” (at right).
Al-Jazari’s Ingenious Clocks is an evocative time piece, a musical journey to a vivid world of invention and imagination. It captures the vision and whimsy of these enchanting time machines, built with a prescience that anticipates our automated modern world.
Luctus Profugis to feature in Minnesota Orchestra’s 24-25 season
- On May 07, 2024
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In EVENTS, News
0
Luctus Profugis will be featured in the 2024-205 season of the Minnesota Orchestra, conducted by Thomas Søndergård. The concerts on May 8 & 9, 2025 at Orchestra Hall, will also feature Mozart (Ingrid Fliter playing Piano Concerto No. 17) and Shostakovich (Symphony No. 11, The Year 1905). Written in 2016, Luctus Profugis is a lament for string orchestra and vibraphone that reflects on the 2015–2019 European refugee crisis. The title translates roughly from the Latin as “Grief for the Displaced.”
Cabinet of Curiosities on Musiqa
- On January 26, 2024
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In EVENTS, Musiqa, News
0
The Harlequin Duo (Clarinetist Nick Davies and pianist Wesley Ducote) performed Cabinet of Curiosities on a Musiqa concert on January 20th and 21st in Houston, a program in which Musiqa and NobleMotion Dance continued their pioneering collaboration with the University of Houston BRAIN Center. “Meeting of Minds” featured a new ballet with music by Anthony Brandt, choreography by Andy and Dionne Noble, and projections by Badie Khaleghian. The program also included new works for dance by Badie Khaleghian and Marcus Karl Maroney. Davies and Ducote later recorded Cabinet of Curiosities (and another chamber work, Swimmy) in a session with engineer Andy Bradley in Stude Concert Hall at Rice University—both recordings slated for upcoming release. Below, the Harlequin Duo jam in 11/8 (2+2+3+2+2) for the sixth movement, Divisions on a Bulgarian Rhythm.
The Sky With All Its Stars
- On December 19, 2023
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In EVENTS, News
0
A January 16th recital at the Shepherd School of Music features the premiere of several new song cycles for voice and piano performed by guest artists Aidan Soder (mezzo-soprano), Wesley Ducote (piano), Mark Diamond (baritone), Michael Clark (piano), Marcus DeLoach (baritone), Grant Loehnig (piano), and Shepherd School students James Palmer (piano), Caitlin Aloia (soprano), Julia Holoman (mezzo-soprano) and William Dopp (bass-baritone). The program includes selections from Tagore Love Songs, Orange Torches Against the Rain, and Two Songs on poems of Reg Huston and the world premiere of: Vespertine Songs, Four Not So Serious Songs, Unsentimental Love Songs and Your Letter Pleased Me Greatly.
Vespertine Songs are melodies of the night. Of an Evening is drawn from the descriptive prose of Charles Dickens (1812–1870), whose brooding evocation of a darkening city emphasizes a timeless, cyclic quality. Marina Tsvetaeva’s (1892–1941) Insomnia has us wandering with a sleepless night owl and finding no solace in the streets. In Points and Lines Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) paints a beautiful metaphor of a night sky, a summer lake and the revelatory wonder of stars. “Anne Knish” is a pseudonym of Arthur Davison Ficke (1883–1945), a conservative American poet whose many “spectralist” poems like Nocturne parodied the imagist movement. Poetic irony then, that these are the only verses for which he is remembered. Nocturne is a nighttime soundscape of sorts: the enveloping noises of the evening fade into the distance, replaced by something even more magical.
Four Not So Serious Songs comprise light-hearted settings of two poems by Robert Graves (1895–1985) and two by me. In This Song is Going to End our poor singer faces a looming existential crisis. An intemperate child protests his lot in Careers, a song which takes the form of a school-yard taunt. The nested structure of Warning to Children makes it a perfect poem for a patter song, its tripping rhythms spiraling down the page. So You Say is a gentle rebuke of melodramatic love songs, and a parody of their romantic tropes.
Unsentimental Love Songs are devoted to the quotidian side of love. The text of This is the Question is drawn from a page in Charles Darwin’s diary (above), when the famed scientist methodically weighs the pros and cons of his impending nuptials. His sensitive, if somewhat self-absorbed character comes across charmingly in his amorous analysis. Edna St. Vincent Millay’s (1892–1950) sonnet I Shall Forget You Presently, My Dear is a classic unsentimental love poem, one of many to feature her delicate balance of scoffing wit and fragile sincerity.
Your Letter Pleased Me Greatly is based on text by Erasmus (1466–1536), from the Dutch theologian’s book on rhetoric, Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style (1512). In a virtuosic demonstration of prose embellishment, he famously provides 195 variations of the simple sentence “Tuae litterae me magnopere delectarunt” [Your letter pleased me greatly]—each variation bringing a very different sense and sentiment to the same basic point. Twenty variants are used in my piece for soprano and piano, and the work’s approach reflects the same conceit: each short “variation” uses similar musical material, but projected with a succession of different moods, characters, and structural forms.
Balourdet Quartet performs Strange Machines in Summer Season
- On June 28, 2023
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In EVENTS, News, Reviews/Press
0
The Balourdet Quartet will include Strange Machines in their summer season with performances at festivals including:
Taos School of Music Chamber Music Festival
Rockport Chamber Music Festival
Green Lake Festival of Music
Honest Brook Music Festival
Music Mountain Summer Festival
Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival
Nantucket Musical Arts Society
Portsmouth Athenaeum Chamber Music Series.
The Boston Musical Intelligencer reviewed their recent performance at Rockport.
Merz Trio premieres Lines in Motion at Chamber Music Columbus
- On May 08, 2023
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In EVENTS, News
0
May 6th saw the Merz Trio premiere Lines in Motion at the concluding concert of Chamber Music Columbus‘ 75th anniversary season. Works by seven composers were commissioned by CMC over the course of their 2022-2023 season. (Lines in Motion was co-commissioned by Chamber Music Houston, where the work was played on January 17th.) The program, presented at the beautiful historic Southern Theatre, included works by Rachmaninov, Shostakovich and Schumann, and opened with a celebratory fanfare by Ching-chu Hu and poetry by poet laureate Jennifer Hambrick.
Strange Machines premiered in the UK and US
- On April 06, 2023
- By alzand@rice.edu
- In News
0
Strange Machines (String Quartet No. 4) was premiered by the Balourdet Quartet in their UK tour this February. The work was given its US premiere at Merkin Hall, New York City on April 4th. Above, a film from the UK premiere: Wigmore Hall, February 7, 2023.