The Muslim News - Ramadan festival returns

Issue 232, Friday 29 August 2008 - 14 Sha'ban 1423

Ramadan festival returns

A celebration of the rich diversity of the world’s Muslim cultures, will once again take place at the end of Ramadan at the Barbican.
The popular festival returns in 2008 with artists from Muslim cultures around the globe, this year ranging from West Africa through the Kurdish areas of Turkey, the Palestinian Territories and Iran, to Azerbaijan.
One of the artists, Reem Kelani who sings traditional Palestinian songs and poetry, has a CD, which came out in 2006, representing the culmination of twenty years’ work, including research in the Palestine territories, Palestinian refugee camps and the Palestinian diaspora, documenting traditional songs and styles. The album was released to critical acclaim and won ‘CD of the year’ nominations in the Financial Times, Time Out and New Internationalist.
Other artists include a family of Kurdish Iranian musicians, the Kamkars, who are widely recognised as one of the leading musical ensembles in Iran today.
The family from Sanandaj - seven brothers, their sister, a wife and a daughter, were inspired to play by the father, Hassan Kamkar, a composer who founded the Sanandaj Academy of Music in the Kurdish-speaking region of the country.

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