Ani Choying Drolma:
Sacred Tibetan Buddhist Chants

The painful current situation in Tibet and the repression that its most significant voices are undergoing make Ani Choying Drolma’s performance more compelling than ever. After the great success she enjoyed in last year’s edition of ÚNICAS - so much so that many people weren’t able to hear her sing, even though she added an extra concert to the schedule – we deemed it necessary to invite her once again, this time at the Palau de la Música, and with a double-bill including Sor Marie Keyrouz, for a performance that is bound to move its audience.

Ani Choying suffered violence and repression for the mere fact of being a woman. She was able to escape them, became a Buddhist nun and healed her soul by chanting mantras that, nowadays, allow her to sell out theatres all around the world. She invests all the money she earns from her concerts and the sale of her 8 CDs in her school, named Arya Tara School, and the non-paid intellectual development of her “army of female monks”. The performance that this extraordinary woman and singer will offer upon returning to our festival is based on ancient sacred chants of Tibet and Hindu mantras - songs of praise, hymns penned in loving memory of her late spiritual guide, mantras aimed at invoking various gods, still chanted today within the Buddhist world in order to keep illness at bay and draw good fortune, strength, mental clarity and compassion. They say her voice heals.

Ani Choying Drolma is going to perform solo, accompanying her voice with traditional Tibetan instruments used in Buddhist rituals, including the Damaru, a hand tambourine, and Tibetan bells.

Sor Marie Keyrouz:
Psalms and canticles from East

Born in Lebanon, recipient of a PhD in Religious Anthropology and Musicology from the Sorbonne University, President of the “L´Institut International de Chant Sacré” foundation, Sor Marie Keyrouz is a nun, a qualified musicologist and an outstanding singer who has been able to lay bridges of peace and harmony between the East and the West.

She offers her voice to audiences all over the world in her countless tours, chanting with equal ease and depth hymns inspired by musical themes of the traditional Jewish, Christian or Muslim song.

In these songs, Sor Marie Keyrouz has found the vehicle to express her love, her infinite thirst for humanity and her encounter with the Creator. Her Oriental Psalms and Chants – and generally her whole repertoire – prove it well; the same goes for the musicians that accompany her, all coming from different, often diverging cultures and religious backgrounds, but united by their tireless willingness to pray for the suffering of men and women or the need for peace. Instruments are active participants in her performances, whether accompanying a song or improvising, echoing her voice. The Qanûn, the Ûd, the Nay, or the Bandîr – the vital blood of Oriental music – join the strings and the piano that accompany Soy Marie Keyrouz, making the most of the richness of her voice and the subtlety of her vocal range.

Firmly convinced that social decomposition and wars are rooted in ignorance and poverty, Sor Marie Keyrouz invests all money proceeding from the sale of her records and her concerts to support the education of poor children all over the world.

If Sor Marie Keyrouz has turned into the “Great Lady of Christian chant”, maybe it’s not just for her ability to harmonize art with science, creativity with authenticity, but essentially because, in her own words, “when she’s singing, she’s praying twice”, and whoever is listening hears, loves and prays twice as well.

LINEUP:

Sor Marie KEYROUZ, vocals
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Elie MAALOUF, piano
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Ousama HANTIRA, violin
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Din RIFFAT, Cítara y Qanûm
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Ralda SALEM, Nay
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Emek EVCI, double bass
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Yousif HBEISCH, percussions
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Nicolas GHATTAS, percussions