ADMAF, the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation, has unveiled its programme for next March’s Abu Dhabi Festival. There are some real standouts, no dance or opera, and less emphasis than in previous years on parachuting in medium-sized foreign names to deliver predictable Western classics.
The 14th edition of the Festival does feature some very big names – Yo-Yo Ma with the Silk Road Ensemble, US jazz icon Wynton Marsalis, top fado exponent Mariza, eminent Saudi singer Mohamed Abdo, jazz/classical piano from Tarek Yamani, Mozart by the Royal Opera House and two concerts from a top Chinese orchestra. There’s no ballet or explicit dance, for a change.
ADF17 will begin on 1 March with the Festival’s community and education programme of free events, exhibitions, performances and workshops. There will also be an Abu Dhabi Festival Exhibition (21 Mar to 21 April) at Umm Al Emarat Park, exploring “the richness and diversity of the UAE’s natural environments” through commissioned and loaned works by a dynamic array of Emirati visual artists.
The main events:
14 Mar Mohamed Abdo: One Moonlit Evening The “Artist of the Arabs” will delighting the local audience with his towering vocals.
17 Mar Royal Opera House: Mozart & Son A company of actors, musicians and singers bring to life the music of the father and his complex relationship with his son Leopold.
17 Mar Wynton Marsalis in Concert A return to Abu Dhabi after his sold-out 2010 Festival concert, joined this time by his Ensemble and at least one protégé from the Juilliard School.
18 Mar Festival Recital Series: Juan Pérez Floristán The 2015 winner of the Santander International Piano Competition gets his Arab world debut.
19 Mar Festival Recital Series: Tarek Yamani One of our favourite genre-crossing musicians presents the world premiere of an Abu Dhabi Festival commission, Portraits in Khaleeji Rhythms and Jazz; now that sounds interesting. An accompanying album and educational resources will also be released.
23 March Tomatito: Soy Flamenco Five-time Grammy winner presents a fusion of ‘nouveau flamenco’, jazz, gypsy, Brazilian and even Turkish influences.
24 and 25 Mar China National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra The Arab world debut for the orchestra with two sublime concerts conducted by Yi Zhang. The first sees Tchaikovsky’s Slavonic March, Dvorák Symphony No. 9 in E Minor and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 (piano Haochen Zhang). The second evening has Bach’s Chaconne in D Minor, Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet Suite and The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang (violin Lü Siqing).
29 Mar Mariza in Concert A star of the world music circuit, Mariza has a evocative, emotional approach to the Portuguese fado genre of songs about longing and loss.
31 Mar The Silk Road Ensemble & Yo-Yo Ma (above) This could/should be the major hit of ADF17. The Chinese-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma formed the Silk Road Ensemble in 2000 to emphasise cross-cultural understanding and innovation; made up of performers and composers from more than 20 countries, the Ensemble’s music is contemporary and ancient, familiar and foreign, traditional and innovative, drawing on traditions from around the world to create a new musical language that reflects a 21st-century global society. And what better aspiration could there be for a musical adventure?
The theme this year is ‘Culture & Tolerance’, which suggests a degree of irony in that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is heralded as the Festival’s ‘Country of Honour’ for 2017.
Why Culture and Tolerance? Hoda Al Khamis-Kanoo, ADMAF’s founder and artistic director of the Festival, said it might seem a self-evident and overstated combination – but “if one looks at the world surrounding us, this bond between Culture & Tolerance needs to be reaffirmed”.
And why the Saudi link? Quite apart from the politics – the UAE is a close ally of the Kingdom in the increasingly aggressive conflict with Iran and selected extremists – there’s an argument that “what was to become today’s Saudi Arabia was an important hub in the Silk Road” and so has relevance to an outward-looking festival.
The Silk Road is of course more of a cultural idea than a physical route, so Saudi Arabi could be regarded as participating in the movement of people, goods and ideas from the East to the Mediterranean and beyond. There are frankincense routes from Oman up through the deserts of Saudi, for example. But it’s not the first place you think of when Silk Roads are mentioned.
Mrs Khamis-Kanoo said “it is our privilege at ADMAF to highlight the artists and luminaries of Saudi Arabia who have taken their culture to such heights while embracing dialogue with the rest of the world. In this context, one must underline the extraordinary achievements in the field of poetry of His Royal Highness Prince Badr Abdul Mohsen Abdul Aziz Al Saud.” Abdul Muhsin (who died in 1985) had a reputation as being relatively liberal and was a well-regarded local governor; he is indeed rated as a notable poet, and more generally as an enthusiast literature, poetry and traditional culture.
More info about ADF17 is here. Tickets are available at 800tickets, and there’s a 25 percent early bird discount for purchases before Saturday 3 December 2016.
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