Performed by AKMM
Arranged by Wu Man
This song comes from the repertoire of Wang Fandi (1933-2017), an influential pipa player and teacher known for creating “minority”-themed pieces that brought real or imagined exotic styles into the mainstream of modern Chinese music. Ostensibly based on a Uyghur folk melody, Wang’s piece, whose original title is “Send you a Rose” (Song wo yizhi meigui hua), is prominent in the repertoire of pipa players, including Wu Man, who learned it directly from Wang Fandi in the late 1980s.
Wu Man is an acclaimed performer on the pipa, a four-stringed Chinese lute with ancient
roots that, due in large part to her efforts, has become a leading instrument of
contemporary music in both East and West. Wu Man performs both traditional and
contemporary music on the pipa, and many new works have been commissioned specially
for her. She was a founding member of the Silk Road Ensemble, and has played an active
role in cross-cultural music making, in particular with members of China’s Uyghur
minority.
Basel Rajoub is a saxophonist and composer-improviser whose inspirations include
traditional Middle Eastern rhythms and melodies as well as jazz. Born in Aleppo, Syria,
he graduated from the Damascus High Institute of Music and creates new music that
brings together musicians from the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, and Europe. A
winner of Radio Monte Carlo’s Moyen-Orient Music Award, Basel Rajoub divides his
time between performing, teaching, composing, and recording. Currently based in Geneva, Basel performs as a member of several ensembles, and is the founding member of the Soriana Project.
Sirojiddin Juraev is a master performer on long-necked lutes from Central Asia. Born
and raised near the ancient city of Khujand, in northern Tajikistan, Sirojiddin learned to
play the two-stringed dutar as a child and later studied with the great Uzbek master
Turgun Alimatov. As a student at the Dushanbe Academy of Maqom, created by the Aga
Khan Music Initiative in 2003, Sirojiddin also studied tanbur and sato (bowed tanbur)
with ustad Abduvali Abdurashidov. Sirojiddin is active as a composer and arranger, and
has created a body of new virtuoso works for dutar, tanbur, and sato. He performs both
as a soloist and as a member of several ensembles, including Soriana Project, the
Academy of Maqom, and Tajikistan’s State Shashmaqom Ensemble.
Feras Charestan is from the city of Al-Hasakeh, in the northeast of Syria, and studied
qanun at the High Institute of Music in Damascus. He has performed as a qanun soloist
with symphony orchestras and has been a member of popular bands as well as
contemporary music ensembles, creating new music rooted in Middle Eastern traditions.
Feras Charestan currently lives in Stockholm, Sweden.
Abbos Kosimov was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, into a musical family. A disciple of
the honored Uzbek doira player Tuychi Inogomov and winner of the Competition of
Percussion Instruments of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, Kosimov established his own
doira school in 1994 and his ensemble, “Abbos,” in 1998. Kosimov performs
internationally with Zakir Hussain and Randy Gloss’s percussion group Hand’s
OnSemble and recorded with Stevie Wonder.
Jasser Haj Youssef was born in Monastir, Tunisia and studied both classical European
music and classical Arabic music (maqām) from an early age. His first instrument was
the violin. Later he began playing the Baroque viola d’amore, which has sympathetic
string that are not bowed, but create a rich, resonant sound. Haj Youssef’s professional
career has merged his interests and talents in the improvisatory art of maqām, classical
chamber and orchestral music, jazz, and world music.