New European String Quartet with Nizar Rohana & Tony Overwater

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

Programme

Part I

Two Folk Tunes (string quartet) — Anan Al-Kadamani (5′)
String Quartet in B-minor— Amr Zahereddine (4′)
Parallax (string quartet and electronics) — Zaid Jabri — World Premiere (12′)
Oud Quintet — Kareem Roustom — European Premiere (23′)

Interval

Part II
Rivers (double bass & oud with string quartet) — Tony Overwater (20′)
Maritza/evros
Om de oude wereldzee
Hills of Delphi

The Nile

Improvisation for Oud & Double Bass — Tony Overwater & Nizar Rohana (20′)

Total duration (approx.): 92 minutes + interval 🎶

At the heart of the programme lies 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)
for oud and string quartet (approx. 27 minutes)

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

Composed for the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, Roustom’s Oud Quintet brings Arabic maqam traditions into dialogue with Western chamber music. Roustom composed the work in response to the lack of meaningful repertoire for oud in chamber music settings, seeking to move beyond orientalist clichés toward an authentic chamber music exchange. Roustom’s Quintet asks both the oud player and the string quartet to meet halfway, explore unfamiliar musical territory, and to work together toward a shared artistic goal, offering a powerful reflection on migration, coexistence, and cultural exchange.

Kareem Roustom (b. 1971, Damascus) is an Emmy-nominated Syrian-American-Canadian composer, and oud player whose work bridges Middle Eastern musical traditions and Western contemporary classical music. His music spans orchestral, chamber, choral, and interdisciplinary forms and has been performed internationally by leading orchestras and ensembles, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and many others. His work has been presented at major venues and festivals such as the BBC Proms, Grand Teton Music Festival, Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival, Pierre Boulez Saal (Berlin), and Carnegie Hall.

World Premiere
Zaid Jabri — Parallax world premiere  New Work for String Quartet and Electronics

Parallax  

When you hold out your thumb and look at it with one eye closed, then switch eyes, your thumb seems to “jump” against the background. That jump is parallax , the illusion created because each eye sees from a slightly different position.

In this piece of music, Zaid is trying to translate that phenomenon into sound. Two differently tuned instruments act like two separate viewpoints: one grounded in reality, the other drifting toward illusion. Their slight differences, their shifting intervals, and the way they overlap create a musical parallax, the sensation of two worlds coexisting, sliding past each other, never fully aligning yet deeply connected.

Zaid Jabri (b. 1975, Damascus) is a composer, conductor, and music educator whose music bridges Western contemporary music and Middle Eastern musical traditions. He studied composition at the Academy of Music in Kraków, where he completed both his master’s and doctoral degrees under Zbigniew Bujarski and Krzysztof Penderecki. His works have been performed widely, from the Berlin Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall to festivals across Europe, North America, and the Middle East. Jabri’s music engages deeply with acoustic and cultural hybridity, microtonal language, and rich chamber-to-orchestral textures, and his compositions have been commissioned and performed by leading ensembles worldwide, connecting musical lineages across geography and history.

Contemporary Syrian Voices:

Anan Al-Kadamani is a Syrian violinist and composer whose work builds bridges between European classical traditions and Arabic maqam-based improvisation. Originally self-taught, he later refined his artistic practice at Codarts University of the Arts in Rotterdam.

As a performer and collaborator, he has appeared in projects with the Syrian Youth Orchestra, Safar Band, and the experimental duo Double Dice, exploring free improvisation and contemporary sound. Based in The Hague, he is active both as a performer and mentor while continuing to develop a distinctive compositional voice shaped by virtuosity, modal expression, and intercultural dialogue. 🎻✨

Nadim Husni — Composer

Nadim Husni (b. 1983, Damascus) is a Syrian composer and violist whose work connects Middle Eastern musical sensitivity with contemporary European composition. He studied viola at the High Institute of Music in Damascus and later composition and conducting at the Academy of Music in Kraków.

He performed with the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra and the Daniel Barenboim-led West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. His compositions have been performed across Europe, and his piece Rubaiyat, inspired by Omar Khayyam, received first prize at the Polish Starosądecki Festival.

Amr Zahereddine
String Quartet in B minor for string quartet
Zahereddine represents a new generation of Syrian composers. His music combines formal clarity and academic rigour with strong melodic direction and dramatic contrast, drawing on Western chamber-music traditions while remaining informed by Arabic melodic sensibility.

Works by Tony Overwater

In this concert, bassist and composer Tony Overwater presents selections from his Mediterranean rivers cycle: Waters Run, Rivers Flow, and The Sea Unites.

These musical portraits are inspired by rivers that flow into the Mediterranean Sea, reflecting how cultures from different regions meet and connect within a shared landscape. The project brings together musical influences from Southern Europe, the Balkans, Turkey, the Middle East, and North Africa, highlighting the Mediterranean as a space of encounter and exchange. Through this series, Overwater explores how local musical traditions, like rivers, travel, transform, and ultimately unite. 🌊🎶

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 musical 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.

Nizar Rohana — Oud

Nizar Rohana is a Palestinian oud player, composer, and educator whose work combines Arabic musical traditions with contemporary composition and improvisation. Active internationally as a soloist and ensemble musician, he has performed across Europe and the Arab world and developed a distinctive voice on the oud through projects such as the Nizar Rohana Trio and his recent solo album Safa. He completed a PhD in artistic research at Leiden University, focusing on the role of taqsīm (improvisation) as a model for composition. 

Long-term Artistic Collaboration — Tony Overwater & Nizar Rohana

The collaboration between Tony Overwater and Nizar Rohana spans more than a decade and reflects a shared commitment to developing a contemporary musical language rooted in Arabic maqam, improvisation, and composed form. Their work moves beyond stylistic fusion toward a true chamber-music dialogue, integrating microtonality, rhythmic flexibility, and melodic nuance 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 String Quartet
Emlyn Stam — viola
Rada Ovcharova — violin I
Jellantsje de Vries— violin II
Willem Stam — cello

With:
Nizar Rohana — oud
Tony Overwater — double bass