Join us for a workshop during which participants will be introduced to some staple rhythms and modes of maqam-based music. We will use our hands and voices to explore key rhythms and scales that underpin repertoires common across the Arab and Turkish worlds. By the end we will be bringing all of the elements together in a song!

No materials or previous experience of maqam-based music will be necessary – we will be using our hands, feet and voices! Instruments are welcome for those who would like to follow the workshop on their instruments.

All welcome, family friendly.

Workshop 2-3pm
Followed by a PAYF concert by Abderraouf Ouertani 3.30pm-5pm

Abderraouf Ouertani’s career is above all a story about curiosity and meeting. It began with the discovery of the oud in Tunisia at the age of 13. Prematurely, he left the conservatoire. ‘The oud is dead, Long live the oud!’ In search of new horizons, he moved to Paris in 2008 where he completed a PhD in Anthropology of Music at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.

He has released four albums of compositions for oud, each recorded in collaboration with different instrumental configurations. ‘Contes d’un misérable luth’, released in 2013, features compositions for oud with percussionist Mohammed Amine Jebali. ‘Contes outre-méditerranéens’, released in 2015, featured a quartet including Chilean double-bass player Patricio Lisboa, French saxophonist Benoît Meynier and Palestinian percussionist Yousef Zayed.

After discovering a Caviller-Coll organ in the little church of his neighbourhood in Paris, he decided to compose for an oud-organ duo, in a collaboration with his Jazz tutor Patrick Villanueva. This led to a third album in 2018, ‘Duo Deux Rives’. For his fourth album, he opted to keep the duo formula. ‘Tales of a return to the imaginary country’, released in 2021, was recorded with Korean piano player Daum Jung.

He has a new Arab Indie Rock project, Kohhen El Kef, which features rock compositions sung in Tunisian dialect. Musically, it is inspired by British Indie Rock, particularly Radiohead. This UK tour will thus be a both a discovery and a return to one of his many musical homelands!