Featured Performers in
Sound of the Soul: The Fez Festival of World Sacred Music

Francoise Atlan & the Mohamed Briouel Orchestra (France-Morocco)
Francoise Atlan is one of Morocco’s leading singers not only of Sephardic but also Arabic song and enjoys huge popularity among both Jewish and Muslim communities. Ms. Atlan is gifted with a most outstanding voice, sweet but not overly so, at once firm and strong and delicate, and endowed with a great spiritual quality. This lady could sing gangsta rap and make it sound good!
(Courtesy of Harmony Ridge Music)

Ustad Farida Mahwash & the Kabul Ensemble (Afghanistan)
Born in 1947, Farida Mahwash is considered Afghanistan’s greatest contemporary woman singer. Her exceptional voice and classical training has brought her the country’s ultimate title of “ustad”, or master musician. Despite her forced exile in the United States, Mahwash has prolonged a long and rich career as the permanent guest of the Radio Kabul Ensemble.
(Courtesy of MondoMix Music)

Anuna (Ireland)
Anuna remain one of the most unusual musical voices around today. Not classical, not folk, not world, not Celtic… Anuna was formed also as a response to the rising clamour for change in their native Ireland, and the need to find a voice that fell between the two stools of Irish music, Traditional and Rock. Anuna are known by name in Ireland, as they spent 18 weeks at number one in the Irish charts in 1994 with the single “Riverdance”, and entered the U.K. top 10 the same year. Much of the music is exotic and unusual, spanning over 1000 years of history and their uniquely beautiful vocal sound has resulted in multiple collaborations with artists such as Secret Garden, The Chieftains, Sinead O Connor and Elvis Costello, to name but a very few. They have also won an Irish National Entertainment Award for Classical music in their own country, and been nominated for a Classical Brit Award in the UK. Their own albums have charted in the Irish charts and in UK and US Specialist charts over the last 10 years. They have appeared on three Grammy Award winning albums, twice with the Chieftains.
(Courtesy of Aruna’s Myspace page)

Samaa Sahraoui (Morocco)
Not yet a staple on the world music scene, Samaa Sahraoui is a home-grown roots Moroccan women’s Berber group. Incorporating trance-inspiring female chorus, flute and electric guitar, and mesmerizing dance, Samaa Sahraoui evokes the sand and the wind of the desert.

Tariqa Harraquia (Morocco)
Founded about two centuries ago, by the saint Sidi Mohamed El Harraq of Tetouan, disciple of the saint Moulay Larbi Darkkaoui, this Sufi order is currently lead by the saint Sidi El Ghali Harraq grandson of the founding sheikh. Every Friday, reciters and musicians gather at the zaouia for religious singing and the hadra (sacred dances). These séances may sometimes include intellectual discussions around Koranic or Sufi texts. It is one of the few Sufi orders in Morocco where the utilization of melodic instruments is associated with the ritual of sama’ (devotional signing).
(Courtesy of FezFestival.com)

The Sirine Choir (Russia)
The Sirine Choir was founded in Moscow in 1989 by Andréï Kotov, aiming to rediscover the rich heritage of ancient Russian spiritual chanting. The choir owes its name to a bird of paradise present in Russian Christian legends. The singers are all from the Tchaïkovski Conservatory or the Gnessine Institute of Moscow which specialises in the interpreting and decoding of old orthodox songs, transcribed in a complex pneumatic code comparable to the hieroglyphic writings of an ancient language. This authentic branch of Russian orthodox music of folk origin, as well as the old chants of the church were completely neglected from the 17th century in favour of the Western tradition. The Sirine Choir is today the most authentic and original Russian vocal group, clearly distinguished from all the other groups who interpret pieces from the Russian repertoire from the 17th to the 20th century.
(Courtesy of FezFestival.com)

The Tallis Scholars (United Kingdom)
The Tallis Scholars were founded in 1973 by their director, Peter Phillips. Through their recordings and concert performances, they have established themselves as the leading exponents of Renaissance sacred music throughout the world. Peter Phillips has worked with the ensemble to create, through good tuning and blend, the purity and clarity of sound which he feels best serve the Renaissance repertoire, allowing every detail of the musical lines to be heard. It is the resulting beauty of sound for which the Tallis Scholars have become so widely renowned. The Tallis Scholars perform in both sacred and secular venues, giving around 70 concerts each year. In April 1994 the group enjoyed the privilege of performing in the Sistine Chapel to mark the final stage of the complete restoration of the Michelangelo frescoes, broadcast simultaneously on Italian and Japanese television. In New York on 5th Dec 1998 the group gave their 1000th concert. That same year saw them in Italy (in Ferrara, at the invitation of Claudio Abbado) and in London for a unique 25th Anniversary concert in London’s National Gallery premiering a John Tavener work written for the group and narrated by Sting. A further performance was given with Sir Paul McCartney in New York.
(Courtesy of the artist’s site)

Nass El Ghiwane (Morocco)
Morroco’s Nass El Ghiwane are legends across North Africa, comparable in status and influence to that of The Rolling Stones on rock music. Indeed, on the cover of their most famous album – 1973’s eponymous Nass El Ghiwane – the five musicians wear long hair, afros and the kind of clothing generally associated with rockers from the late-1960s. Yet one listen to their music and the comparison with Jagger and co. ends: employing traditional instrumentation (banjo, bendir, darbuka, tam-tam, hadjuj), Nass brilliantly fused several strands of traditional Moroccan music.
(Courtesy of BBC 2008 World Music Awards)

McCollough Sons of Thunder (USA)
From Harlem’s United House of Prayer comes New York’s premier “shout” Gospel band. The McCullough Sons of Thunder, or The Thunderbirds as they are sometimes called, brings the rich tradition of African-American Gospel music to their brass ensemble. Whether collaborating with the renowned David Byrne or performing at The White House, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, or the Apollo Theater, this outstanding ensemble invariably brings audiences to their feet.
(Courtesy of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance)