Face to Face

Award-winning oud player, composer, and conductor Issam Rafea is considered to be among the most innovative oud players in the world today. Rafea returns to Morgenland to share with us his personal connection with the oud in a solo set that brings to the forefront the intricacies of the “king of instruments” in Arab culture, where the craft is in the details while the beauty is in the whole.

On the second half of the concert, Rafea will be joined in a new collaboration with trail-blazing saxophonist Asya Fateyeva, whose personal sound and approach is expanding the world of saxophone in the classical world. A celebrated soloist and educator, Fateyeva was the first woman to reach the finals of the renowned International Adolphe Sax Competition in Belgium, taking third place. She currently teaches classical saxophone at the Hochschule for Music and Theater Hamburg and at the Musikhochschule in Lübeck.

Issam Rafea - oud
Asya Fateyeva - saxophone