Oktober 2019: Oriental Opera Ensemble live at Stellinger Kirche

This was my absolute heart project. For over a year I wanted to sing a concert with Arabic music. Fortunately, I was able to perform this program already in the Kulturhaus Lübeck and now in a well-filled church in Hamburg! The large, beautiful Stellingen Church, which has been inviting me to its concert series since my first “Winterreise” in 2016, was once again the birthplace for one of my debuts. This time with the “Oriental Opera Ensemble”: The wonderful Oûd player and conductor of the children’s mandolin orchestra Ali Shibly and two young talents: Mohamad Ezzat Maamo on guitar and the percussionist Nidal Asa´ad. I learned a program with famous songs by the Arabic singer Fairuz. I got a lot of support from my three musicians to master the Arabic language and to translate all the lyrics. It was also a incredible beautiful experience that we always sang all together in each rehearsal.
In the concert I performed every song as a German translation in poem form, so the German audience could also understand in the magical Arabic poetry. The feedback for this concert overwhelmed me. There were German guests who were deeply impressed by the Arabic music and Arab guests who asked me incredulously how I learned all of this. I can only thank my three musicians and Hans-Christoph Ebert the cantor of the Stellingen church, who is organizes extraordinary concerts. And once again I can tell you that I just enjoy putting something in my head and then realizing it. I think you should always follow your ideas. They could be awesome.

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