Zafir: Musical Winds from North Africa to Andalucía

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Global Music Series

Zafir: Musical Winds from North Africa to Andalucía

Friday, April 15, 2016, 8:00 pm
Michigan Theater

Simon Shaheen brings to life the Arab music of Al-Andalus and blends it with the ubiquitous art of flamenco in Zafir, a program of instrumental and vocal music and dance that renews a relationship with music from a thousand years ago. Zafir explores the commonalities of music born in the cultural centers of Iraq and Syria that blew like the wind (zafir) across the waters of the Mediterranean to Al-Andalus, where it blended with elements of Spanish music, then was brought back across the seas to North Africa, where it flourished in the cities of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. Zafir features virtuoso composer and musical director Simon Shaheen with his group Qantara, acclaimed Tunisian singer Sonia M’barek, flamenco musician Juan Pérez Rodríguez, and the fiery young flamenco dancer Auxi Fernandez, who completes the music with her explosive footwork.