10th Anniversary of the Osnabrück Morgenland Festival

The Osnabrück Morgenland Festival enjoys an excellent reputation among international music festivals. The annual programme provides an overview of contemporary musical culture of the Middle East, from traditional music to avant-garde and rock. The festival sees itself as a kind of podium and collaborative workshop. This is where musicians from the East and West come together to develop and present joint music projects of high artistic quality. In celebration of its 10th anniversary in 2014, the birthday edition of the festival presented some of the most influential musicians of the Middle East, such as the Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor, the Azerbaijani singer Alim Qasimov and the Armenian duduk master Jivan Gasparyan. The programme included numerous cooperation projects as well, such as joint collaborations between the NDR Bigband and the Kurdish singer Aynur, the Azerbaijani jazz pianist Salman Gambarov and jazz musician Florian Weber, and a joint concert by the Uyghurian rock band Qetig with guests from Syria, Lebanon and Germany. The Hamburg filmmaker Günter Wallbrecht made a documentary film of the 2014 festival. In addition to workshops, podium discussions and an exhibition, the University of Osnabrück has organised a symposium on “The language of popular music” in cooperation with the Morgenland Festival.

Artistic director: Michael Dreyer
Musicians: Alim Qasimov (AZ), Jivan Gasparyan (AM), Aynur (TR), Dhafer Youssef (TN), Kayhan Kalhor (IR), Giora Feidman (ARG), Abrahim Keivo (SY), Qetig, Salman Gambarov, Florian Weber, NDR Bigband, Capella de la Torre and many others