Nordic Voices/Javid Afsari Rad Trio
Paulus kirke
22/9, 13.00
Ticket: 200/100 NOK
(Followed by a post-concert talk)
Lasse Thoresen:
Riddle of the Twin Revelations (2018)
The Impatient Bride (2018)
Javid Afsari Rad:
Haftnava (Seven Tunes, 2016)
Baran (Rain, 2011)
The status of women in historic and modern day Iran are highlighted in the first of two events (see also Mitra) featuring Norwegian and Iranian performers and related subject matter.
In 1848 at a conference in Badasht, the Iranian poet Táhirih threw off her veil and declared ‘You can kill me whenever you like, but you cannot stop the liberation of women.’ Five years later she was executed. She was a leading figure in the Middle Eastern women’s liberation movement. This year, Norwegian composer Lasse Thoresen created two new works for the vocal sextet Nordic Voices based on Táhirih’s poems and utilising Persian scales. Highlighting the spirit of resistance that is often achieved at a high personal cost, Thoresen’s pieces invites us to compare conditions in modern day Iran with the situation 170 years earlier.
Javid Afsari Rad is an Iranian composer, santur player and multi-instrumentalist who has lived in Norway for 30 years. His music is equally influenced by traditional Persian music and the Western classical tradition. Today he brings his trio with Harpreet Bansal (violin) and Tove Erikstad (cello), bridging the cultural divide.
Following the concert, a post concert discussion with the involved artists from this concert and the Mitra show at Black Box later this Saturday will take place on the relation between music and the fight for freedom of expression in Iran.
