Al-Kindi Ensemble


Al-Kindi Ensemble is a Sufi musical group founded in 1983 by Julien Jalâl Eddine Weiss. Based in Aleppo, Syria, Al Kindi Ensemble is mostly known for its works on the Arab-Muslim and Sufi musical traditions.

History

Founded in 1983 in Aleppo by Julien Weiss as a tribute to Al-Kindi, a philosopher and music theorist of Arab world, Al Kindi Ensemble began its journey with the spirit to explore Arab-Andalusian, Oriental, Turkish and Iranian influences in music. The ensemble wanted to acquire a repertoire from the entire Arab world. At the beginning the group consisted of only three instrumentalists. The Egyptian Tar and Riqq player Adel Schams Eldin, Julien Weiss and the Syrian Nay player Ziad Kadhi Amin. Initially, the ensemble only played instrumental pieces. Julien Weiss later decided to expand the group. He traveled to Syria and met with Sheikh Hamza Shakkûr, a well-known singer of classical music. Shakkûr was also the head of the Sufi community of the whirling dervishes. In 1986, Weiss converted to Islam and settled in Aleppo. There he developed a collaboration between him and many singers of classical music from Iraq and Syria, such as Adib Dayikh and the Tunisian singer and musician Lotfi Bouchnak.

Musical style

Accompanied by loud and longer devotional chanting, the group uses multiple instruments such as oud, spike fiddle, flute, percussion and zither to create a melodious symphony. The music is often accompanied by whirling dervishes during their concerts such as Sahin Nasir from Istanbul, Maher and Hatem Al Jamal from Damascus, and Yahyah Hamami and Yousef Shreymo from Aleppo.

Musicians

Instrumentists

  • Julien Jalâl Eddine Weiss, qanûn player and director of the ensemble
  • Adel Shams El Din, Egyptian master of the riqq
  • Mohamed Saada, Tunisian flutist and musicologist from Nay
  • Abd al Salam Safar, master of Syrian taqsim and nay player
  • Zyad Qadi-Amin, flutist from Damascus
  • Mohamed Qadri Dalal, Syrian master of the Ud
  • Mohamed Gomar, Iraqi master of the djoza
  • Ozer Ozel, the lute master from Turkey
  • Alem Kasimov, master of the Azerbaijani tar
  • Mehmet Refik Kaya, Turkish master of the Sufi and Ottoman rabab
  • Osman Oksuzoglu, Turkish master of Ottoman kudüm

Singers

The Al-Kindî Ensemble has welcomed many solo singers since 1990 including:
  • Sheikh Hamza Shakkûr
  • Sabri Moudallal, composer of religious song from the great mosque of Aleppo
  • Adîb Al-Dâyikh, ghazal reciter from Aleppo
  • Sheikh Habboush, the leader of the zawiya qaderiya Sufi brotherhood from Aleppo
  • Omar Sarmini, Syrian master of the qasidah
  • Huseyn Ismail Al Azami, master of the classical Maqam from Baghdad
  • Dogan Dikmen, Ottoman classical singer and professor at Yeldiz University and member of the TRT orchestra in Istanbul
  • Bekir Buyukbas, hafiz and muezzin of the Sultan Fethi mosque in Istanbul
  • Lotfi Bouchnak, malouf singer from Tunis
  • Constantin Angelidis, from Athens, Greece

Discography