Hewar ( "Dialogue") is a

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

band from

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, formed in 2003. The band and its members are mainly known for their three CDs and concerts in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and the US. Further, founding members

Kinan Azmeh Kinan Azmeh (, born June 10, 1976, in Damascus), is a Syrian clarinet player and composer of contemporary classical music based in New York City. Performing with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the Bavarian Ra ...

Dima Orsho Dima Orsho (; b. 1975, Damascus, Syria) is a Syrian-American mezzosoprano singer and composer. She studied first at the Damascus Higher Institute for Music and later at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Since 2003, she has been a member of the ...

and

Issam Rafea Issam Rafea, also written Essam Rafea (, born 1971 in Kuwait), is a Syrian musician, music director and composer, noted for his compositions and performances on the Arabic oud, as former director of the Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music ...

have performed and recorded their compositions inspired by Western and Arabic traditions as well as jazz influences with other Middle Eastern and European musicians.

History

Hewar was founded in 2003 by Syrian

clarinetist The clarinet is a single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches. The clarinet family is the largest woodw ...

Kinan Azmeh and oud player Issam Rafea. Having graduated from the Higher Institute for Music in

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

, they later became members of the

Syrian National Symphony Orchestra The Syrian National Symphony Orchestra (, ) is the national symphony orchestra of Syria. Its home venue is the Damascus Opera House, and many of its members have been educated at the Higher Institute for Music in the same cultural complex on ...

, playing Western and Arabic classical music. As they also enjoyed international jazz and pop music, they decided to compose their own music, blending influences from their West-Eastern training with

musical improvisation Musical improvisation (also known as musical extemporization) is the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition, which combines performance with communication of Emotion, emotions and Musical technique, instrumental techn ...

. Initially, Hewar included Badi Rafea on

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

, Simone Mreysh on drums and Khaled Omran on double bass. Dima Orsho, a soprano singer who had studied

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

singing at the Damascus conservatory and later in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, joined the band adding her ability to sing both in Arabic, opera and jazz styles. Their first public concert took place in September 2003 in the Orthodox al-Zaytun church in the historical quarter of Damascus for an audience of 1,500 people. In 2004, Hewar performed in 10 cities in the US, including the

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...

and

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

campus. During later years, they played in France, the United Kingdom, Japan, Lebanon, Egypt and in German concert halls such as the

Elbphilharmonie The Elbphilharmonie (; "Elbe Philharmonic Hall"), popularly nicknamed Elphi, is a concert hall in the HafenCity quarter of Hamburg, Germany, on the Grasbrook peninsula of the Elbe River. The new construction resembles a hoisted sail, water wave ...

Hamburg. Their first CD ''Hewar'' was published by the Lebanese Incognito label the following year, with further albums by the German publisher Dreyer-Gaido. Guest musicians on the second and third albums were German accordionist Manfred Leuchter,

duduk The duduk ( ; ) or tsiranapogh (, meaning "apricot-made wind instrument"), is a double reed woodwind instrument made of apricot wood originating from Armenia. Variations of the Armenian duduk appear throughout the Caucasus, the Balkans, and the ...

player Jivan Gaparyan from

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

and Lebanese percussionist

Rony Barrak Rony Barrak is a Lebanese darbouka player and composer. He began playing the darbouka (Middle Eastern Tabla) at the age of four. Career Barrak made his first TV performance at the age of seven and then proceeded to improve his skills throug ...

. Since the three founding members emigrated to the US, Tunisian-British violinist Jasser Haj-Youssef and Syrian cellists Basilius Alawad or Kinan Abou-Afach joined the band. Both as members of Hewar as well as individual artists, Azmeh, Orsho and Rafea have also been part of the Morgenland Festival Osnabrück in Germany.

Discography

* ''Hewar'' (2005). * ''9 Days of Solitude: The Damascus Session'' (2007), featuring Manfred Leuchter, accordion * ''Letters to a Homeland'' (2012), featuring Jivan Gasparyan, Rony Barrak, Andreas Müller, Morgenland Chamber Orchestra

References

External links

Hewar on discogsHewar on Kinan Azmeh's webpageMorgenland Chamber Orchestra & Ensemble Hewar
on YouTube
Gurdjieff Ensemble & Hewar - Live at the Elbphilharmonie
on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Hewar Jazz fusion ensembles Musical groups established in 2003 Musicians from Damascus Syrian contemporary artists Music of Syria Syrian musical groups

History

Discography

See also

Further reading

References

External links