Shortly after the beginning of the Arab Spring, four young musicians in Damascus founded the Ramal Ensemble. Having fled the Syrian civil war, they now live in Berlin, where they finished their studies, including at the Barenboim-Said Akademie, and started performing together again. Their Pierre Boulez Saal program focuses on the question of how revolution and war have influenced the development of Arabic music and how the experiences of flight and exile can enrich today’s musical aesthetics. Joined by violinist Monia Rizkallah and soprano Sara Gouzy, the ensemble traces connections between their compositions, contemporary works for violin and voice, new arrangements of songs by Schubert and Oswald von Wolkenstein, and classical Arabic music.

The Ramal Ensemble is a project of the Barzakh gGmbH in cooperation with the Pierre Boulez Saal. Funded by the German Music Council and NEUSTART KULTUR.