New European Ensemble String Quartet with Nizar Rohana & Tony Overwater

Contemporary Arab Music in Dialogue

📅 14 April 2026
🕗 20:15
📍 Mennonite Community Church, Utrecht

This special concert brings together the New European Ensemble with two leading voices in contemporary Arab music: Palestinian oud virtuoso Nizar Rohana and Dutch bassist and composer Tony Overwater.

At the heart of the programme is a deep musical dialogue between Arabic maqam traditions and contemporary composition and improvisation. Together, the performers create a rich and layered sound world in which new music, tradition, improvisation, and storytelling converge. The programme reflects the ensemble’s commitment to music that engages with contemporary realities while honouring deep musical lineages — values central to the Culture Unlimited Festival.

🌍 European Premiere

Kareem Roustom — Oud Quintet (2024–2025)

European Premiere
for oud and string quartet
(approx. 27 minutes)

Movements:
I. Zanjaran
II. ‘Iraq
III. Kurd
IV. Dulab

Written for the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, Oud Quintet brings Arabic maqam traditions into dialogue with Western chamber music. Roustom composed the work as a response to the lack of meaningful repertoire for oud and string quartet, aiming to move beyond orientalist clichés toward a true chamber-music dialogue.

The piece asks both the oud player and the string quartet to meet halfway, explore unfamiliar musical territory, and work together toward a shared artistic goal — offering a powerful reflection on migration, coexistence, and cultural exchange.

🎼 Additional Works — Contemporary Syrian Voices

Anan Al-Kadamani

Two Folk Tunes
for string ensemble

Arrangements inspired by traditional melodies, combining European classical string writing with Arabic modal sensibility.

Amr Zahereddine

String Quartet in B minor
for string quartet

Zahereddine represents a new generation of Syrian composers. His works combine formal clarity and academic rigor with strong melodic direction and dramatic contrast, drawing on Western chamber-music traditions while remaining informed by Arabic melodic sensibility.

Suhaib Al-Samman

Miniature for String Trio (2005)
for violin, viola, and cello

An intimate chamber work marked by transparent textures, subtle ornamentation, and lyrical restraint, revealing Al-Samman’s refined compositional voice.

Tony Overwater

Rivers Flow
for oud and string quartet

In Rivers Flow, Tony Overwater brings the oud into dialogue with the string quartet through flowing forms inspired by movement and continuity. Microtonality, groove, and improvisatory freedom coexist with notated chamber textures, creating a natural meeting point between Arabic musical language and contemporary ensemble writing.

🤝 Long-term Artistic Collaboration — Tony Overwater & Nizar Rohana

The collaboration between Tony Overwater and Nizar Rohana spans more than a decade and reflects a deep, shared commitment to developing a contemporary musical language rooted in Arabic maqam, improvisation, and composed form.

Their work explores the meeting point between oud and Western ensemble traditions, moving beyond stylistic fusion toward a true chamber-music dialogue. Through various projects and compositions — for oud, strings, and mixed ensembles — they have developed a refined approach in which microtonality, rhythmic flexibility, and melodic nuance are integrated into structured, contemporary contexts.

This concert continues that long artistic journey, presenting music shaped by trust, shared musical memory, and sustained exchange.

🎻 Performers

New European Ensemble

with
Nizar Rohana — oud
Tony Overwater — double bass