I was booked to play oud in Roxanna Panufnik’s opera Dalia, the story (libretto by Jessica Duchen) of a refugee in the UK, who finds her way into the hearts of local people through hr passion for cricket. The opera explores the kindness but also the hypocrisy of English society, Read more…
Today is Good! took the stage at the first edition of Siracusa’s Moro Festival on 22 December
I moved to Sicily in May 2017, in order to work as a volunteer with Francesco in various educational projects for asylum-seekers. We were keen to work with unaccompanied minors, and were trained to be legal gaurdians. Alongside this legal and pastoral work we have put on a series of Read more…
In autumn 2017 I collaborated with Isola Quassud, a theatre company based in Catania, Sicily, developing music within an intercultural production entitled ‘Welcome to Italy’. The aim was to immerse the audience in Italy’s disfunctional reception process for immigrants. Through a series of workshops involving reading, movement and singing, the actors drew Read more…
In December 2015, in collaboration with Stavroula Constanti, I organized three concerts as fund-raisers for ProActiva Open Arms, a Spanish NGO working to save lives in the Mediterranean. We were also happy to be selling the celebrated cookbook Soup for Syria in support of the same cause. The beautiful image of a Read more…
The London launch of the long-awaited English translation of Wasif Jawhariyyeh’s memoirs was held at London’s Mosaic Rooms in February 2014. Jawhariyyeh’s account of Palestine in the late Ottoman and British Mandate eras is an indispensible document for historians, and also provides fantastic insights into music-making of the period. It Read more…
Building on my courses in Intercultural Performance run at Royal Holloway, I now lead music workshops for instrumentalists, vocalists and those who just want to have a go at making music in a group. Workshops vary in aim: in the case of Today is Good! (weekly sessions, ongoing) and Welcome Read more…