DAMASCUS, FROM THE NILE TO THE EUPHRATES

The outstanding singer Lubana Al Quntar proposes, for the 22nd annual Festival’s opening, a truly fascinating musical odyssey to the heart of the countries of the Levant, called Bilad El Cham or Greater Syria in an earlier era, exploring the gems of a heritage that is among the world’s richest and most diversified.

Mastering the vocal techniques of opera, the Arabic traditional music as well as the sacred chants, she embraces the Syriac, Sufi, Turkish, Kurdish and Persian vocal heritage, the qudud and muwashahat and delves tirelessly into the ancestral roots of a plural Arab civilization.
In her first Montreal appearance, accompanied by a group of talented musicians, Lubana Al Quntar offers us pure vocal and musical delights in a journey where we can discover Syria in all its influences and diversity, from the Nile to the Euphrates, from Oum Kalthoum to Asmahan, from Christian hymns to Sufi chants, Andalusian Muashahat to Aleppo’s Qudud, Damascene folklore to Turkish, Kurdish or Persian melodies…