In Acoustic Roots our guests for tonight are ud player Nizar Rohana and clarinettist Maarten Ornstein.
Nizar Rohana and Maarten Ornstein are two members of the Madar Ensemble, which means Orbit. Sadly, the other three members of the Ensemble were not able to come, but they promised to perform at Acoustic Roots in the future.
The Madar Ensemble consists of a group of five musicians from the Netherlands, Palestine, Jordan and Tunesia. Recently they released the CD Acamar.
During Acoustic Roots, Rohana and Ornstein play as a duo a number of songs from this CD.
Nizar Rohana orginates from Palestine, from the village of Isifya at Mount Carmel. His father played the ud during local festivities and his mother accompanied him as a percussionist. From an early age Rohana played an instrument and from his thirteenth the ud. After extensive studies in ud performance, composition and musicology, Rohana specialised in composing modern ud compositions, inspired by both western composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Brahms and eastern: Tanburi Cemil Bey, Kemani Tatyus Efendi, Muhammad Al-Qasabji and Muhammad Abdel Wahab. Since September 2013 Rohana lives in the Netherlands where he works on his PhD Improvisation and Composition in solo ud performances at Leiden University Academy for Creative and Performing Arts. He plays in the Nizar Rohana Trio, the Madar Ensemble and gives solo performances.
Maarten Ornstein is a Dutch musician, composer, arranger from Amsterdam. He plays tenor saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet. Sometimes he plays tarogato, electric saxophone, MPC and laptop computers. He is the leader of the free funk ensemble DASH and performs as soloist. He also plays together with lutist Mike Fentrom, singer Rima Khcheich, poet and singer Jeannine Valeriano and pianist Sunna Gunnlaugs. He is a member of the group Splendor Amsterdam. He is always searching for new challenges, new musicians to work together with, rules to break and limits to cross.
Playlist:
1. Madar Bayati, Nizar Rohana
2. Furat, Nizar Rohana
3. Sofia, Maarten Ornstein
4. Acamar, Nizar Rohana
5. Dalya, Nizar Rohana
6. Furud, Rohana, Overwater, Haj Youssouf, Ornstein
7. Not the Rain, Maarten Ornstein
