Karim Sulayman & Sean Shibe: Broken Branches

EVENT DESCRIPTION

MUSICAL EXPLORATION OF MIXED IDENTITIES

In his Hong Kong début, American tenor Karim Sulayman and Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe present Broken Branches, a conceptual recital that explores the cultural and musical ties between the East and the West. The programme ranges from Monteverdi and Purcell to Britten and Middle East folk songs, exploring music that ties in with the artists’ mixed identity, as they each grew up in the West (United States and Scotland) but with ethnic roots in the East (Lebanon and Japan).

The album “Broken Branches” was nominated for a 2024 Grammy award for the Best Classical Vocal Solo Album, and has toured in the US to great acclaim.

Karim Sulayman has garnered international attention as a sophisticated and versatile artist, winning a Grammy Award for Classical Solo Vocal in 2019. Guitarist Sean Shibe brings a fresh and innovative approach to both the electric and traditional classical guitar, and has won two OPUS Klassik Awards (2021 & 2023), and two Gramophone Awards (2019 & 2021) for his originality and virtuosity.  This is their first collaboration together.

Programme

PURCELL
Music for a While

DOWLAND
Praeludium

DOWLAND
Fantasia

DOWLAND
Time Stands Still

CACCINI
Dalla porta d’oriente

MONTEVERDI
Si dolce è’l tormento

MONTEVERDI
La mia turca

TRADITIONAL
La prima vez (arr. Sulayman & Shibe)

TRADITIONAL
Lamma bada Yatathanna (arr. Shibe)

DARWISH
El Helwa Di

RODRIGO/FAIRUZ
Li Beirut

HARVEY
Sufi Dance

CHAKER
A butterfly in New York

TAKEMITSU
In the woods: Wainscot pond

BRITTEN
Songs from the Chinese

Duration: approx. 75 minutes without interval