As of 1 December 2022 I am Professor of Intercultural Performing Arts at Codarts University of the Arts in Rotterdam, and the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts in Leiden. This is a fantastic opportunity to draw together the multiple strands of my hybrid creative practice, and work with a Read more…
For a long time the oud was disparaged in Iran, even though the Sassanian empire was fundamental to its development centuries ago. One key to its twentieth-century revival was the musician Mansur Nariman. I recently recorded some of his short pieces.
I moved to Sicily in May 2017, in order to work as a volunteer with Francesco in various educational projects for asylum-seekers. We were keen to work with unaccompanied minors, and were trained to be legal gaurdians. Alongside this legal and pastoral work we have put on a series of Read more…
Oudmigrations is an internet-based project dedicated to the journeys of ouds, their histories, and the stories attached to their makers, players, and owners. I developed the research thanks to a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust, and worked in collaboration with musician, luthier and researcher Karim Othman-Hassan. When we launched in April Read more…
My work is increasingly engaged with the play between sight and sound. While developing materials and techniques for a large-scale project exploring the marine environment I have published some short work-in-progress studies in audio-visual animation. They build on earlier collaborations with bassist James Banner, and artist Lin Li.
In December 2015, in collaboration with Stavroula Constanti, I organized three concerts as fund-raisers for ProActiva Open Arms, a Spanish NGO working to save lives in the Mediterranean. We were also happy to be selling the celebrated cookbook Soup for Syria in support of the same cause. The beautiful image of a Read more…
In 2001 I was artistic Director of Signs Games and Messages, a 2-week long festival celebrating the music of Gyorgy Kurtag, and a collaboration between London’s South Bank Centre and the Royal Academy of Music. We were awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Festival Prize for 2002. Press coverage was extensive, Read more…