Mavericks: Seeing Without Seeing Kinan Azmeh, Ahmed Aboutaleb & New European Ensemble
Mavericks: Seeing Without Seeing
Kinan Azmeh, Ahmed Aboutaleb & New European Ensemble
đź“… 20 February 2026
đź•— 20:00
đź“Ť Nieuwe Kerk, The Hague
Tickets:https://www.amare.nl/nl/agenda/mavericks-seeing-without-seeing-ts8j
Mavericks: Seeing Without Seeing is a powerful interdisciplinary programme bringing together music, poetry, and reflection. This concert presents a unique collaboration between Ahmed Aboutaleb, Kinan Azmeh, and the New European Ensemble, exploring themes of perception, imagination, and inner vision.
The New European Ensemble welcomes Ahmed Aboutaleb as a special guest in this production. The former mayor of Rotterdam will read from his poetic work, bringing a distinctive voice of reflection, moral clarity, and human depth to the programme. His texts act as a mirror to the music, inviting the audience to reflect on identity, responsibility, freedom, and belonging — themes that resonate strongly within the broader context of migration and contemporary society.
Mavericks: Seeing Without Seeing
This programme brings together artists who, each in their own way, push the boundaries of listening and perception. Aboutaleb’s poetry, known for its directness and ethical clarity, opens a contemplative space in which listening becomes an act of attention — not only to sound, but to meaning.
The musical core of the evening is formed by the work of Kinan Azmeh, the internationally acclaimed clarinettist and composer whom The New York Times described as “intensely soulful… a virtuoso.” A Grammy Award winner and recipient of the Opus Klassik Award (2019), Azmeh is both a brilliant musician and a storyteller. His music moves between composition and improvisation, between silence and expression, carrying the emotional weight of exile, memory, and transformation.
At the heart of Azmeh’s contribution lies a profound exploration of migration, identity, resilience, and hope. His compositions unfold as chapters in a larger human narrative — a musical journey from displacement and longing toward dignity and belonging. Azmeh’s music does not merely describe migration; it embodies it.
In close dialogue with the New European Ensemble, this music gains new depth and dimension. Together they create a sound world in which East and West meet without translation, where tradition and innovation coexist, and where personal stories merge into a shared human experience. Migration is presented not as victimhood, but as a source of creativity, strength, and renewal.
New music
A special highlight of the evening is the world premiere of a new work by Hawar Tawfiq, the Kurdish-Dutch composer acclaimed for his deeply emotional and poetic musical language. In this programme, Tawfiq approaches blindness not as a limitation, but as an invitation to deeper listening, expanding the notion of perception beyond sight.
Music on Migration — What Does Hope Sound Like?
Under the thematic lens of Music on Migration: What Does Hope Sound Like?, this programme invites the audience to reflect on questions that words alone cannot answer. How does hope sound when one is forced to leave home? How can music and poetry express grief, longing, resilience, and inner freedom?
Sometimes intense and urgent, sometimes tender and introspective, this concert becomes both a carrier of memory and a compass for the future. It invites listeners to listen more deeply — and to experience sound itself as a form of homecoming.
Mavericks: Seeing Without Seeing is part of a national tour through Dutch theatres and concert halls, presented within the framework of Culture Unlimited Festival 2026.
