Event details

The Composition Colloquium presents a talk by Amir ElSaffar

Ticketing

Free, Unticketed

Bio

Composer, trumpeter, santur player, vocalist, and bandleader Amir ElSaffar has been described in the New York Times as “the celebrated trumpeter and composer who explores vital connections between jazz and Arabic music.” A recipient of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and US Artist Fellowship, and Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University, ElSaffar has earned an international reputation for his work combining jazz and western classical music with the microtonal Maqam music of Iraq and the Middle East.
His six piece Two Rivers ensemble and 17-piece Rivers of Sound orchestra, combining Western and Arabic instrumentation and musical languages, have released five critically acclaimed albums and have toured throughout the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East. ElSaffar has also composed numerous works for chamber ensembles, symphony orchestras, jazz and Middle Eastern music ensembles, and transcultural works for Flamenco, Gnawa, and Raga musicians, and has made recent forays into electronic music, in addition to composing for dance, film, and theater.

ElSaffar is an expert trumpeter conversant not only in the language of contemporary jazz, but has created new techniques to play microtones and ornaments idiomatic to Arabic music. He was a member of Cecil Taylor’s large ensembles from 2002 to 2005, and has performed in the ensembles of Archie Shepp, Vijay Iyer, Danilo Perez, and Anthony Davis.