As part of Nour Festival of Arts 2015

Nour Festival of Arts shines light on the best of contemporary Middle Eastern and North African arts and culture each October and November in venues across Kensington and Chelsea. Featuring music, film, food, exhibitions, talks and dance, Nour acts as a crucial meeting point for East and West.

Lunchtime Music

Monday 2nd to Friday 6th November 2015

The Ismaili Centre, 1 Cromwell Gardens, London SW7 2SL

A series of lunchtime musical interludes in the Ismaili Centre’s serene entrance, with a collection of musicians refreshing traditional Middle Eastern compositions on the unique instruments of the region.

About the Musicians

Behroz Rahimiyan studied Fine Art at the University of Tehran. He is master of the santoor, a trapezoidal shaped stringed instrument originally known as the shata tanti veena, the instrument of a hundred strings. He also plays the qanoon, with which he performed in these concerts.

Awat Afroozi, is from Saqez in Kurdistan Iran.  He studied sound engineering at the University of London and plays the piano, guitar, ney and zarb. The zarb is considered the principle percussion instrument of music from Kurdistan Iran, and is also known as the tonbak or donbak.

Zana studied art at the University of Sulaymaniyah. He plays the oud, one of the most popular stringed instruments of the Middle East, and the setar.

Two musicians from the Taqasim Music School played contemporary music from the Middle East on instruments including the oud, tar, ney and tanbur.