Upcoming Events

The Centre for World Musicians, in partnership with Soho Concept, is pleased to present a concert by Erkan Oğur and Ismail Hakkı Demircioğlu.

This event features two of Anatolia’s most respected musicians, both famous for their contributions to Anatolian folk music and their mastery of their instruments.

Erkan Oğur, the inventor of the fretless guitar, is a critically acclaimed guitarist whose influence extends beyond international boundaries. His collaboration with Ismail Hakkı Demircioğlu, a master of the strings, was praised for his artistic alchemy and deeply emotional performances. The duo’s repertoire includes a mix of old and new Anatolian folk songs, described as “a common attempt to recall” the soulful melodies of their homeland.

For more than twenty years, Oğur and Demircioğlu have been breathing new life into the songs of Anatolia, mixing traditional instruments like saz and bağlama lute with modern fretless guitar sounds. Their collaborations have resulted in several albums and concerts acclaimed around the world, drawing on musical traditions that date back to the 14th century.

This concert at the Saint-Enfant-Jésus church in Mile-End offers a rare opportunity to discover the depth and beauty of Anatolian folk music, performed by two of its most authentic and competent practitioners. Don’t miss this opportunity to attend a live performance that promises to be a sincere tribute to the rich musical heritage of Anatolia.

“The most exciting vocal group of its generation”

Windborne’s captivating show draws on the singers’ deep roots in vocal harmony traditions, while the absolute uniqueness of their artistic approach brings old songs into the present. Known for the innovation of their arrangements, their harmonies are bold and anything but predictable.

With 20 years of experience studying polyphonic music around the world, Lauren Breunig, Jeremy Carter-Gordon, Lynn Rowan and Will Rowan share a vibrant energy on stage, with a blend of voices that could only come from decades of friendship and diligent practice. The ensemble moves effortlessly from one style of music to another, taking the audience on a journey that spans continents and centuries, illuminating and expanding the profound power and variety of the human voice. Singers educate while entertaining, sharing stories about their songs and explaining the context and characteristics of the styles in which they sing.

Music that makes you travel! With the sounds of jazz, the subtleties of classical, the klezmer inflections and the tango rhythms.

Renowned for their versatility, sensitivity and virtuosity, the four musicians present Villes Éternelles, in which the long and rich tradition of oriental music permeates each of Masmoudi’s compositions with its modes (maqamat) and metrics.

Masmoudi’s original compositions are permeated by the rich oriental sounds of the oud, with classical and jazz accents from Eastern Europe, complemented by piano, double bass and clarinet. A host of influences raked together along the way, in a truly open and experimental approach.

With: Guillaume Martineau on piano, Rémi-Jean Leblanc on double bass, Gabriel Paquin-Buki on guitar and Mohamed Masmoudi on clarinet.

This concert brings together four artists from different musical traditions. You will listen to a combination of traditional Maritime tunes with Rwandan melodies, accompanied by instrumental Baroque melodies on the lute and gheychak.

Inspired by 17th-century musical traditions, voices and instruments create an original tapestry of sound, constantly transformed by artist Deo Munyakazi’s improvisations on the inanga.

The result is an astonishing constellation of unique pieces, with Kerry Bursey’s lute and Reza Abaee’s gheychak. He adds a Baroque and Persian dimension to the Scottish and Irish melodies of traditional Maritime singer Janelle Lucyk.

Voices and inanga: Deo Munyakazi
Voice and violin: Janelle Lucyk
Lute and theorbo: Kerry Bursey
Gheychak: Reza Abaee