“Damascus Soloists” Band launches its first project to revive the Syriac-Syrian music 

In its first show Sunday evening, the band “Damascus Soloists”, led by Maestro Misak Baghboudrian, chose Dar Al-Assad for Culture and Arts to launch its first project through reviving the Syriac-Syrian musical heritage that dates back to Before Christ and was passed down orally from generation to generation.

The evening, titled “Oriental, Syriac Spiritualties” and hosted by the Drama Theater, comes as part of the band’s program for the year 2023, which includes, after yesterday’s evening, several concerts in Russia at the invitation of the Tchaikovsky State Institute in Moscow, where the band will perform its concert at the Rachmaninov Theater, and then another concert at the Eurasia Theater in the Russian city of Novosibirsk.

The musical evening was supported by the Ministry of Culture and the Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East for the Syriac Orthodox, the Antioch Private University Academy, and the economics of the Golden Mazzeh Hotel. Academic singers, including Sanaa Barakat and Michel Sununu participated in the event because of their great experience in performing Syriac music.

The evening’s program, which was prepared and arranged by Narik Abjian, included the presentation of 14 musical and lyrical pieces of various Syriac periods and rituals.

The band is also planning to perform periodic concerts that shed light on the music of the Syrian components, which is an important intangible cultural heritage for Syria and the region.

It is noteworthy that the Damascus Soloists band consists of Andrei Makdisi and George Tannous on the violin, on the piano Talar Kaka Jian, on the cello Muhammad Namik, on the flute Rabie Azzam and Maher Khader, on the bouzouki  Bassem Jaber, on the percussion instrument ShafiqYaghi, while Sanaa Barakat and Michel Sununu  are the vocalists of the band. The group was led by Maestro Misak Baghboudrian.

Leen Al Salman