Sama International Choral Festival 2023 performs 30 July at Lionel Wendt

•  A pioneering initiative of Haadia Galely of Sri Lanka
•  Directed by Prof. Andre De Quadros of Boston, USA
•  An integration of four international choirs
•  The Manado State University Choir of Indonesia , Voices 21C (USA), World Muslim Choral Ensemble and the Muslim Choral Ensemble of Sri Lanka.
•  Among the organisations and individuals supporting the initiative are Akbar Brothers group, Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute, Hanif Yusuf, Ishq Colombo, Shangri-La Colombo, Ashan Perera, Road to Rights and Daily FT

Alireza Shahini is an Iranian drumming professional, performance related academic and entrepreneur. He is a master of the vicissitudes of the ancient traditional drum of Iranian culture, the Tombak and also the immensely popular Daf. Alternating his time between Iran and Cyprus he teaches drumming at university and has his own traditional drum making company. As of now he also has an open invitation for a visiting academic teaching position at the University of Visual and Performing Arts extended by the department head after his performance and briefing on the historical and current relevance of cultural drumming heritage of Iran.

“I hope to share with you about the Tombak and Daf. But my English not so good,” began Alireza Shahini as he began to interact last Sunday morning with over 100 students of the Faculty of Performing Arts at the University of Visual and Performing arts in Colombo. Sri Lankan academics associated with drumming and performance exchanged notes on similarities and differences in the tradition of drumming in Iran and Sri Lanka.

“See, I use only one finger now, the ring finger,” announced Alireza as his mesmerized audience stared fixated at the quicksilver speed with which his finger moved. If he did not tell us that he was only drumming with one finger we could have been pardoned to have assumed that it was not just one drummer but six of them!

Senior academics of dance and performance, Prof. Saman Kumaratunga, Prof. Sarath Premarathne and Prof. P. M. K. Bandara asked pertinent questions on technicalities associated with drumming on the Tombak while both Alireza and Sri Lankan Tammettam students performed to the roaring applause of the students.

Thus, Haadia Galely had facilitated for the past four years not just international choirs to perform in Sri Lanka but for a much needed exchange among young artistes across the sphere of music.

“My country Iran very beautiful. It is friendly. You can come,” he tells me as I ask him about the general stereotypes associated with non Muslim women travelling to Islamic countries.

“No, there is no problem at all. Little bit you cover hair with scarf and you know, normal dress – both men and women we dress normally modestly – same in Sri Lanka I see – same in Iran. Our national festival time in March. Nice time to visit,” explains Alireza referring to the Nowruz festival, commemorating the Persian New year. This interaction could possibly teach us never to generalize countries from what we hear on world news.

Using music globally as a language of understanding for decades now, Prof. Andre De Quadros is the music director of the Sama Choral Festival in Sri Lanka since its inception performance in Colombo and is a co- founding member of the festival initiated by Haadia Galely in 2017. Originally hailing from Goa, India had initially in his youth graduated in economics and mathematics, later moving onto specalise in his childhood passion, the violin and rising to become the head of department of music direction/performance at the Monash University in Australia. He is currently affiliated with Boston University in the United States where he resides.

“The word Sama in the Islamic world mean ‘listen’ which could also be interpreted as reflect. It is when you listen deeply that you could reflect equally deeply on what is said. This is the basic premise of awareness based communication. This is the beginning of peace,” emphasized Prof. Quadros in a discussion with this writer. The Lionel Wendt Performance tomorrow will feature the following choirs;

The Manado State University Choir (MSUC) from the Indonesian province of North Sulawesi, a mixed voice based chamber choir of approximately 24 singers acclaimed for their vocal versatility , performing a wide range of repertoire of indigenous and modern renditions of music which under the direction of Prof. Andre De Quadros, has reached accolades and awards globally for their excellence in performance.

Voices 21C, an artistic collective uses music and performance to promote human rights, justice and empathy, dedicated to creating global holistic human affinity through music. Voices 21C aligns itself with the great American voices of compassion, love and empathy.

The Muslim Choral Ensemble founded in 2017 by Haadia Galely (Executive Director) and Prof. Andre De Quadros ,is supported by vocal coach Manoj Sanjeewa, being one of its kind based in the city of Colombo. The choir offers renditions of spiritual recitations practiced through the ages in the Islamic world and is an inclusive effort of both male and females as well as those of other faiths and cultures within Sri Lanka as well as internationally. The Islamic spiritual performances by the choir include the Zikr, Nashids, Qasidas and Qawwali.

The World Music Choral Ensemble (WMCE) seeks to sentisize societies to each other to eliminate misconceptions and pre-conceived notions.

These choirs are vibrantly brought together to be part of the Sama International Choral Festival concluding performance in Sri Lanka, tomorrow, Sunday, 30 July at 7.30pm at the Lionel Wendt, Colombo.