Zaid

ZAID JABRI Since he won the prestigious Adam Didur Composers' Competition in 1997 for his “Two Songs for Soprano and String Orchestra,” Zaid Jabri has been a rising star of the contemporary classical music scene in Europe. In 2008, he was Artist/Composer in residence at Istanbul Bilgi University. He enjoyed a Tactus Composer’s residency in 2011 and, in the same year was admitted to the Polish National Composer’s union (KZP). In June 2013 he was honored with second prize in the International Composing Competition “2 Agosto” for his 2007 work, “Les temps de Pierre, for Baritone and Symphony Orchestra” and since then he has been the recipient of several major awards, including a residency at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and the George Evans memorial fellowship there, a Rockefeller Foundation/Bellagio Centre residential fellowship (2015), the Weiss Visiting International Scholar at Barnard College (2015, deferred), and a MacDowell residential fellowship (2016). Born in Damascus, Syria, Jabri began his musical education by studying the violin with Riyad Sukar in his native town. He completed his M.A. degree with honors from the world-famous Music Academy of Krakow in Poland where he studied composition with Zbigniew Bujarski. Jabri is completing his PhD at the same academy under the supervision of Professor Krzysztof Penderecki. Since 2008, he has also taught in the Academy’s contemporary composition program, where he has begun to attract students from across the globe. Jabri’s musical range is vast, and the scale of his compositions varies from intimate duets to large-scale orchestral works, as well as chamber and vocal music. Key to his work is the combination of strong melodic lines and harmonics with the microtonal strategies more typical in Middle Eastern music. Eschewing the folkloric, but devoted to the use of authentic musical practices and instrumental elements from regional traditions, Jabri is also inventive in the incorporation of mechanical techniques and industrial sound into his music. Not infrequently, he designs new instruments for use in his compositions. Such technical innovation, which is nevertheless always in service to the overall emotional and conceptual purpose of the work, has been a characteristic of Jabri’s work since he wrote “Computer Music No. 1 for Tape,” in 2003. Jabri’s list of compositions and commissions includes “Two Songs for Soprano and Strings” (1997, for full orchestra), which was first per¬formed by the Orkestra Opery Slaskiej and the Sinfonietta Cracovia, and subsequently played in Marseilles, Ravenna, Genoa, Tunisia, Cairo, Am¬sterdam, and London; “Adar for String Orchestra “(1998); “Trio Bayat for clarinet, violin and cello” (1999) which has been performed in Germany, Holland, the UK and the USA; “Gesture for Violin and Piano” (2000), played in Russia, Egypt, France and Italy; “Muzyka Kameralna for strings” (2003), which has been performed in Poland, the Ukraine, United Arab Emirates and Syria. Zabri’s “Concerto for Clarinet and Large Symphony Or¬chestra” (2004), was premiered at the opening of the Damascus Opera House, for which it was commissioned. In the same year, his “Oriento Grosso for clarinet, Cello and Orchestra” (2004) played in Ravenna, Genoa, Damascus, and Orange County, USA. This was followed in 2005 by “Glyptos for Flute and Percussion,” commissioned by the Warsaw Autumn Festival, and “Song Without Words I for Cello and Orchestra” (2005), which played in Ankara, Istanbul, Damascus and Uzhgarod, Ukraine. “Song Without Words II for Clarinet and String Orchestra” (2007) was performed in Munich and the again in the Ukraine, and “In Memoriam Solhi Al-wadi for Tape, Clarinet, String Trio,” had widespread play in Aleppo, Amman, Beirut, Vienna, Prague, Boston and New York. 2009 saw the completion of “Song Without Words 3 for cello and strings,” and “Solo for Cello solo,” with the latter playing in Moscow and Krakow. “In Memoriam Adam Kaczynski” (2010) was played by the Glyptos Ensemble in Krakow, while “Some Words…” (2010) was played in London and Krakow, and “Love and Mercy” (2010) was chosen by the Polish National Radio Symphony for perfor¬mance under the conductor’s baton of Michał Klauza. Peter Weigold conducted “Glyptos 2” (2011) in London, and Tobias Sobaniec conducted it in Krakow the same year. “Glyptos 3” was also written in 2011 and performed in Poland. “Beati Pacifici” (2011) received its premiere in Amsterdam. Jabri’s more recent work includes “Quintet for English horn and string quartet” (2012), “Gerra and Quasioun for Oboe and Chamber Orchestra” (2013), and new work commissioned by the Stuttgart Neue Vocalsolisten, which is also participating in a documentary film by David Kotter to be made about Jabri and their ongoing work together. Jabri’s Two Songs for Mihyar of Damascus, based on the poems of Adonis, which was commissioned by Neue Vocalsolisten, has been toured internationally by the group, and enjoyed performances in the US, Canada and Europe. Four scenes and an intermezzo from his opera, Cities of Salt, were showcased at the Royal Opera House, Linbury Theatre in London, in July 2015. With a libretto by Yvette Christiansë and Rosalind Morris, the music for that large scale work, which is written for 12 solo voices, large mixed chorus and a full orchestra, is currently in progress.