DOORS 7:30PM

TICKETS $25

“Taraf” is the Romani word for musical group. The Domani, the Romani community of Syria, was estimated to be 250,000 before the war. The Domani migrated from India over 1000 years ago, arriving in Persia before eventually settling in Syria. One of Syria’s most renowned Romani musicians was Mohammed Abdul-Karim (1911-1989), who was known as the “Prince of the Bouzouk” and composed the tango on their debut recording

​​“We were rehearsing when a mortar struck the music conservatory complex in Damascus in 2014,” remembers violist Omar Abou Afach, who performed both violin and viola with Syria’s National Orchestra from 1993-2015. The attack caused numerous casualties at the arts centre. “After the bombing stopped we were sure that no one would attend that evening’s concert at the Opera House, just 100 metres away, but that night the hall was full. Even during wartime, people came to every cultural event. I think it was the only place where people could get a breath of normal life.”

Omar Abou Afach has since immigrated to Montréal, and is part of an extraordinary ensemble called Taraf Syriana, an ensemble of conservatory trained virtuosi which also includes Naeem Shanwar (qanun, and former music professor at the Universoty of Homs), Noémy Braun (cello) and Sergiu Popa (accordionist from one of Europe’s great Romani musical dynasties).

The group is dedicated to the folk music of Syria and its neighbours. “In Aleppo, Damascus and other cities, you can hear this diversity in music, on the streets and on the radio,” recalls Abou Afach, “and that includes Arabic, Kurdish, Syriac, Armenian, Iraqi, Turkish and Romani music.”