Home > Arts and Cultural Exchange > Main Activities > Fiscal Year 2004-2005 > - The Music of Profound Solace Growing Out of Iraq - Naseer Shamma Group First Concert Tour in Japan
Arts and Cultural Exchange
- The Music of Profound Solace Growing Out of Iraq - Naseer Shamma Group First Concert Tour in Japan
The group is led by Naseer Shamma, the world-renowned lute player who moved his performances out of Iraq ten years ago and is now based in Cairo.
Organized by The Japan Foundation
Schedule | Seminar | Member of Japan Tour | Profile
NAGASAKI
November 28 /19:00~
Meruka Tsukimachi Hall
5F, Meruka Tsukimachi, 3-18 Tsukimachi, Nagasaki-shi (Tel:095-823-9333)
Ticket Price: 2,000yen / 1,000yen (Under High School Student, Foreign student)
Ticket/Inquiries: Nagasaki International Association (Tel:095-823-3931)
HIROSHIMA
November 30 /18:30~
Gewand Hall
Wako Palace 21, 2-1-13 Honkawa-machi, Naka-ku, Hiroshima-shi (Tel:082-503-1711)
Ticket Price: 1,500yen
Ticket: DEODEO, Yamaha Hiroshima, Chugoku Shimbun (Tel:082-236-2455)
Inquiries: Chugoku Shimbun Kikaku Kaihatsu (Tel:082-236-2244)
TOKYO
December 2 19:00 / December 3 19:00
The Japan Foundation Forum
Ticket Price: In advance 3,000yen / At the door 3,500yen
Ticket: CN Play Guide (Tel:03-5802-9999)
Inquiries: The Japan Foundation (Tel:03-5369-6063)
December 3 16:00~18:00
The Japan Foundation Forum
Speaker: Naseer Shamma, Yoshiko Matsuda (Japanese Lute Player)
Ticket free
Reservation: The Japan Foundation (Tel:03-5369-6063)
*Seminar will be in Japanese and Arabic.
Member of Japan Tour
NASEER SHAMMA (Head of the Group, Oud)
SABIR ABDEL-SATTAR (Qanun)
SAEED KAMAL (Violin)
AL-GHANDOOR HUSSEIN (Violin)
AMR MUSTAFA (Riqq)
HANI AL-BADRI (Nay)
SALAH RAJAB (Contrabass)
IMADEL DEEN ABDEL-MONIM (Cello)
Profile
Naseer Shamma was born in 1963 in Al-Kut (Waset Province) located between
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Iraq, the birthplace of Mesopotamian
civilization. He took up the oud at the age of 14, and studied at the
Baghdad Academy of Music. Performances in France in 1985 brought Naseer
Shamma to prominence. He received his diploma in 1987.
Naseer Shamma has received numerous prizes in Iraq and other countries:
the Best Melody Award in 1986, the Best Arab Musician Award at the Jurash
Festival in Jordan in 1988, Iraqi Artists Union Awards in 1988, 1989,
and 1990, and the Best Theater Composition Award at the Carthage International
Festival in Tunisia in 1990, as well as medals in Morocco and Tunisia
in 1992 and in Portugal in 1996.
At the age of 25, Naseer Shamma founded an oud group called Al-Bayariq.
Subsequently he restored a manuscript by Al-Farabi, a famed musicologist
active during the 9th century. Following that text, he reconstructed a
form of oud (which is normally six-stringed) that has eight strings, and
used this to open up new horizons in oud performance. Naseer Shamma taught
at the Higher Institute of Music in Tunisia from 1993 to 1998. He founded
the Beit Al-Oud Al-Arabi (Arab Oud House) at Al-Harawi in Cairo in 1998.
In his capacity as the director, he is currently providing his guidance
to the next generation of musicians there. At the same time, he also founded
a musical ensemble called Al-Oyoin.
Major Compositions
The piece titled "An Eastern Love Story" was composed for an
oud-playing friend who lost an arm in the Iran-Iraq War, which is said
to have caused a million or more casualties. The composition was created
for a unique technique for playing the oud with just one hand. "Happened
at Al-Ameriya" is a memorial composition to the incident of the Ameriya
shelter in Baghdad, where many women and children were killed when bombs
were dropped on the wrong target during the Gulf War. Naseer Shamma himself
was imprisoned for several months during the Saddam Hussein regime.
In 1986, he composed "The Suffering
of Hiroshima" as an offering to the victims of the nuclear bombing
in Hiroshima.