GHAZAL CONCERT with Lorna Crozier, Rob Winger, Sandra Ridley and Robert Pinsky

Featuring music by the M E L M'RABET Quartet

In Person Poetry Music

Admission

Free

Tuesday

Apr

5:43am

Eastern

Southminster United Church

15 Aylmer Ave at Bank Street • Ottawa

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GHAZAL CONCERT with Lorna Crozier, Rob Winger, Sandra Ridley and Robert Pinsky

Pinsky talks, with democratic warmth and intimacy, to the common things of this world. His extraordinary poems remind us that he has always embodied the very ideal he proposes for what a poet can do.

Lloyd Schwarz, The Boston Phoenix

The ghazal is an ancient Persian form of verse consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. The form is ancient, originating in 6th century Arabic verse and popularized by Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi in the 13th century and Hafez in the 14th century. Ghazals continue to inspire and delight in the 21st century. In style and content, they have proven capable of an extraordinary variety of expression around central themes of love and separation.

Join us for an evening of poems inspired by the ghazal tradition featuring Governor-General’s Award winner Lorna Crozier, Trillium and Governor General’s Award nominee Rob Winger, Saskatchewan Book Award winner Sandra Ridley, and former United States Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, with music by the M E L M'RABET Quartet connecting the present and the past.

The Authors

Lorna Crozier

lorna crozier's is the author of seventeen books of poetry, including God of Shadows, which was longlisted for the Raymond Souster Award, What the Soul Doesn't Want, The Wrong Cat, Small Mechanics, The Blue Hour of the Day: Selected Poems, and Whetstone. She is also the author of The Book of Marvels: A Compendium of Everyday Things and the memoir Small Beneath the Sky. She won the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry for Inventing the Hawk and three additional collections were finalists for the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry. She has received the Canadian Authors Association Award, three Pat Lowther Memorial Awards, and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. She is a Professor Emerita at the University of Victoria and an Officer of the Order of Canada, and she has received five honorary doctorates for her contributions to Canadian literature. Born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, she now lives in British Columbia.

Mel M Rabet

Musician, composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist, MEL M’RABET was born to musician parents and grew up in Granada, Andalusia. An Oud virtuoso, he has performed the world over with musicians such as Cesaria Evora, Steve Potts, Omar Sosa and Cheb Mami, as well as Chano Dominguez and other prominent Spanish flamenco artists. His mastery of the traditions and his powerful technique has resulted in a very distinctive style of playing that reflects his desire to extend the possibilities for the instrument. Mel's mesmerizing vocals and agile playing will be accompanied by a percussionist, and a pianist. "He sang and gave his oud, (the fretless stringed ancestor of the Renaissance lute), an exciting, dexterous workout, and for once the Western backup music and technology didn't sanitize or ravage the authenticity of the songs in the way that many traveling bands with their barrage of electronic gadgetry do." ~ Toronto Star http://www.myspace.com/melm39abet http://melmrabetensemble.blogspot.com/

Nicolas Caloia

Nicolas Caloia was a student of Lisle Ellis and Fred Hopkins, like them he is interested in many different types of music. A long time member of Montréal’s avant-garde community, Nicolas Caloia has performed with local artists such as Malcolm Goldstein, Rainer Wiens, Sam Shalabi and Michel F Côté, as well as internationally renowned artists like Joe McPhee, Joe Giardullo, Steve Lacy, Hassan Hakmoun and Tristan Honsinger, with whom he has a soon to be released recording. For many years he led, and recorded with his own group, the Ratchet Orchestra, a group dedicated to performing original music, as well as the music of Sun Ra. Since 1999 Nicolas has enjoyed performing and recording with Bansuri player Catherine Potter’s Dunya Project. This group draws inspiration from North Indian classical music. Nicolas is presently working with M’rabet M Trio led by the multi-instrumentalist and Oud virtuoso Mel M’rabet, Miguel Medina, and an extraordinary assorted percussionist with multi-instrumentalist Michael BrownDrive on released by Borealis, which was nominated for a Juno Award in 2001.

Nizar Tabcharani

Nizar Tabcharani studied music at The National Conservatory of Music of Lebanon for a period of seven years and is a member of the Syndicate of Professional Musicians of Lebanon. In Canada he obtained a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science and Music- Kanoun performance from Concordia University. Nizar is extensively experienced in performing on the Kanoun with many Arabic folkloric troupes, which toured extensively throughout Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries.

Patrick Graham

Canadian multi-percussionist Patrick Graham blends tradition, experimentation, composition and improvisation in an exceptionally versatile approach that blurs boundaries. Patrick’s cross-cultural percussion style reflects his training in Western classical and contemporary music and his extensive explorations of Mediterranean, Irish, South Indian, and Japanese rhythms, including studies with teachers Pierre Béluse (Montréal), Glen Velez (New York), Carlo Rizzo (Grenoble), Trichy Sankaran (Toronto), and Taichi Ozaki (Tokyo). As a creator of projects such as the duo GaPa with Ganesh Anandan, and as a collaborator with groups such as Autorickshaw, On Ensemble, and La Nef, Patrick's unique sound reflects his experience in multiple genres of music and his profound fascination with the power of rhythm. Patrick is an endorser of Cooperman Drums and Schlagwerk Percussion "...Percussionist Patrick Graham demonstrates astonishing versatility." -Yves Bernard, Ici

Rob Winger

Rob Winger’s first book, Muybridge’s Horse, was a Globe and Mail best book, shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award, Ottawa Book Award, and Trillium Book Award for Poetry, and won a CBC Literary Award. His critically acclaimed second collection was The Chimney Stone. Born and raised in small-town Ontario, Rob currently lives in the hills northeast of Toronto, where he teaches at Trent University.

Sandra Ridley

Sandra Ridley is the author of five books of poetry: Fallout; Post-Apothecary; The Counting House; Silvija, a finalist for the 2017 Griffin Poetry Prize; and Vixen, winner of the 2024 Pat Lowther Memorial Award. She has won the bpNichol Chapbook Award, Saskatchewan Book Award for Publishing, the Alfred G. Bailey Prize, and the Toronto International Festival of Authors’ Battle of the Bards. Additionally, she has been a finalist for the Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award, the Ottawa Book Award, the Archibald Lampman Award, the ReLit Award for Poetry, and the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. She has also been nominated for the Ontario Arts Council’s KM Hunter Artist Award for Mid-Career Writer and for the Ottawa Arts Council’s Mid-Career Artist Award. Ridley has taught poetry at Sage Hill Writing, Carleton University, and has had the honour of being a mentor with Ottawa’s Supportive Housing and Mental Health Services “Footprints to Recovery” program for people living with mental illness. An audio performance of her chapbook “Lift” was presented on CBC’s Sound Exchange. Her work has been anthologized and translated into German and French. Sandra grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan and lives in Ottawa.