Now available on-demand on Vimeo – click here to view. New Music Edmonton’s presentation of Afarin Nazarijou (qanun) and Isabel Crespo Pardo (voice) on Saturday, February 26, 2022 at 2:30 pm.
Afarin Nazarijou (Qanun, Iran) and Isabel Crespo Pardo (Voice, NYC/Costa Rica) have developed their duo for two years, performing Persian classical music, Latin American folk music, Jazz, and free improvisation. Their distinct musical and cultural backgrounds filter into their improvisations, creating a rich tapestry of new and traditional sounds. The duo develops their free playing by rehearsing weekly, listening together, crafting exercises to push their improvisations in new directions, and receiving coachings from mentor and pianist Anthony Coleman. This Fall, they moved to different cities and can no longer rehearse regularly. However, they continued working together by composing open form pieces that reimagine song traditions through the lens of free music. This opportunity allows them to debut a new set of open form pieces and develop their collaboration further. Their compositions employ forms and modes particular to Persian classical music, original poems in Farsi and in Spanish, and explore timbres and gestures located in and between the qanun and the voice. Thematically, their pieces are born from a need to communicate and a want to share, the duo’s work is informed by their experiences as immigrant and first generation American, as people of color, as women and as queer folx.
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