Elshan Ghasimi on the Museum Island in Berlin

Dear friends,

The next few months are all about the sounds of classical Persian music. What strange coincidence that Cate Blanchett received the Lion of Venice for her role in the film Tár last week. Fiction and yet a story that goes close to the truth.

This autumn we have a unique highlight on the museum island in Berlin: In November and December 2022, the Iranian musician and composer Elshan Ghasimi will premiere her reinterpretation of the Radīf in the James-Simon-Galerie. A historical moment, because for the first time a woman will systematically reinterpret the 1400 years, and more, old repertoire.

In the first chapter of the composition project, Ghasimi devotes herself to the melodies of the Dastgāh-e Shur module in four concerts. The opening concert on November 10, 2022 is introduced by the renowned British music and opera critic Michael Church and the director of the Museum of Islamic Art Prof. Dr. Stefan Weber. Further concerts will take place on Thursdays at 7 p.m. on November 17th and 24th and December 1st in the auditorium of the James Simon gallery on the Museum Island in Berlin.

Before that, on October 7th, the third part of the Elies Miniatures concert cycle - the flower and death - premieres in Berlin. Since 2018, this concert series has been talking about the life of the mathematician, poet and Quran researcher El Arbi Bouqdib, who died in 2016. Using selected objects from Bouqdib's estate, the "El Arbi Bouqdib Archive", and their cinematic, literary and, above all, musical interpretation, the story of a traveler between the Orient and Occident takes shape in the concerts.

For the flower and death, the virtuoso and master of classical Persian music Elshan Ghasimi composed 19 new compositions to 19 objects from the archive and demonstrates them, accompanied by the cinematic staging of the same through Stark & Shakupa, in her performance.