news

 

"Room" in Istanbul and Oslo

"Room" is a dance performance with live accompaniment on prepared piano and drums. It's a collaboration between dancer Mia Habis, drummer Øyvind Skarbø and myself on the piano.

Although the structure of the performance is pretty much set, there's always room for improvisation and no two performances are alike. It's always an incredible experience to perform in different venues and on different grand pianos, let alone different countries. We started off with Lebanon in 2014, followed by Istanbul for the first edition of A Corner In The World Festival, then Oslo to perform at the Coda International Dance Festival 2015, where our venue was nothing other but the old Saint Jacob Church turned into an amazing performance space. 

For more info on Coda Festival, click here

For more info on A Corner In The World Festival, click here

Talents Beirut

A branch of the Berlinale Talents which invites every year more than 300 talents from the four corners of the globe during the Berlin International Film Festival to meet film experts and discuss film related matters, Talents Beirut is a project that aims to support film talents from the Arab World by discovering new ways to approach the art of film making, whether from technical or theoretical point of views.

I was happy to be part of the "experts" in this 2015 edition of Talents Beirut to conduct the Master Class on film scoring with emerging music composers from Lebanon and Egypt!

For more information on the program, check out the official page here.

Morgenland Festival | 10 - 19 July 2015

I'm thrilled to have taken part in a fantastic concert on July 24th, topped by an incredible jam. The Morgenland festival is much more than a music festival, it's one of the coolest venues for musicians from all over the world to meet and perform together in front of a very reactive and receptive audience. Concerts could last up to 3 hours, and what an incredible experience that is!

Rehearsals in a 300 year old house in the middle of the forest - photo by Andy Spyra

Facing a standing ovation with all the musicians who jammed with us. From left to right: Ranu, Zulal trio, Cynthia Zaven, Rony Barrak, Negar Bouban, Feruza Ochilova, Dima Orsho, Alex Morsey, Simin Tander, Bodek Janke, Nelly Markarian, Kinan Azmeh, Caroline Thon, Veronika Todorova. photo by Andy Spyra

Rudolstadt Festival | 2-6 July 2015

The Rudolstadt festival is Germany's biggest roots, folk and world music festival. The concerts take place throughout the entire town itself – from the baroque church to the town theatre, from the castle terrace to the marketplace, on thirty-two stages. Every year, the Ruth Prize awards a creative and outstanding act. This year, it was our turn! Our concert was scheduled at the palace square in the middle of the afternoon, at the Große Buhne Heidecksburg, an open air venue on what turned out to be the hottest day of the month. The Ruth Prize ceremony was set to start at 4pm. We performed afterwards at over 40 degrees Celsius to an audience of passionate music lovers and festival's veterans. We were really excited, survived after performing in such incredible heat, and thrilled to have received the Ruth prize 2015! 

Ruth award 2014

Getting ready for Rudolstadt and the Ruth World Music Award!

What started as an experiment between 8 musicians from different backgrounds at the Women in Jazz festival in 2014, turned out to be the winner of a music award! On July 4th 2015 we will be performing our own compositions with new arrangements for 8 musicians and singers at the Rudolstadt World Music festival in Germany. The 8 musicians include Caroline Thon who's the initiator of the project on sax, Alex Morsey from Germany on double bass, Bodek Janke from Poland/Kazakhstan on percussion and drums, Negar Bouban from Iran on oud, Veronika Todorova from Bulgaria on accordion, Feruza Ochilova from Uzbekistan on dutar and vocals, Simin Tander from Germany/Afghanistan on vocals and myself on piano.

The concert will take place in the main festival square in Rudolstadt after which the award will be given. Can't wait!


From left to right: Bodek Janke, Cynthia Zaven, Negar Bouban, Feruza Ochilova, Caroline Thon, Simin Tander, Alex Morsey and Veronica Todorova at the Halle Opera House, February 2014 - photo by Raisa Galofre

From left to right: Bodek Janke, Cynthia Zaven, Negar Bouban, Feruza Ochilova, Caroline Thon, Simin Tander, Alex Morsey and Veronica Todorova at the Halle Opera House, February 2014 - photo by Raisa Galofre

 

Perpetuum Mobile at the AUB gallery

26 March - 25 July 2015

My 12 channel sound installation Perpetuum Mobile, part of the This Is The Time. And This Is The Record Of The Time exhibition curated by Angela Harutyunyan and Nat Muller, has been shipped from the Stedelijk Museum Bureau in Amsterdam to the AUB gallery in Beirut!

Unpacking 6 amps, 12 speakers, laptop, sound card and miles of cables

Tijs Ham setting up a software from the future (Supercollider) on a computer from the past (Powerbook G4)

View from the opening

Tramontane Awarded AFAC grant and Arte International Prize!

In the space of one week, Tramontane, the feature length movie in pre-production written and directed by Vatche Boulghourjian was awarded the Arte International Prize at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, and a production grant from AFAC! 

This is the most challenging and exciting project I have ever come across as music supervisor and composer, and I can't wait for production to start already! 

 

Ghassan Salhab wins at Abu Dhabi Film Festival!

One of the joys of composing music comes from collaborations with visionary filmmakers on truly inspiring projects.               With "The Valley", Ghassan was awarded the "Best Director From The Arab World" prize at the Abu Dhabi International Film Festival last night!

Ghassan is an incredible director with extensive knowledge in both classical and contemporary music. I feel honoured to have him as a dear friend, and to have had the opportunity to work with him for the second time! 

Room at CO2 Festival

Excited to start a new collaboration with Øyvind Skarbø (drums) and Mia Habis (dance)! Next week we'll be busy setting up the structures for a performance based on improvisations on percussion and drums, prepared piano and dance. 

For more information on the festival and the program, please visit the Maqamat website here - 

Facebook page - 

L'Orient Le Jour -

Mia Habis

Øyvind Skarbø

 

The performance entitled Room, is part of CO2 Choreographers & Composers, a new festival opening on September 28th. Our performance is scheduled for September 29th at the Monnot crypt and October 4th in Deir el Qamar!

Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam installation & opening

View from the opening

With Tijs Ham from Steim, without whom this would have been simply impossible.

With Tsolin Nalbantian

With painter Daniele Genadry and curators Nat Muller and Angela Harutyunyan

With Daniele Genadry

Tamy arrives from Paris to see the show!

Residency at STEIM

 

Just started working on my Perpetuum Mobile sound installation at STEIM, the Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music in Amsterdam! Thank you Tijs Ham for your precious help and feedback.

We will set up the installation with the 12 hanging speakers at the SMBA exhibition venue on September 9th, the show starts on September 13th!

Perpetuum Mobile work in progress, Studio 1, STEIM

Perpetuum Mobile receives AFAC grant

Very happy that my latest project, Perpetuum Mobile has just been selected by the AFAC committee jury of this year to receive a production grant!  

Perpetuum Mobile is a newly commissioned 12 channel sound installation that will be exhibited at the SMBA Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam. The work is part of a group exhibition titled "This Is The Time. And This Is The Record Of The Time".

The curators, Nat Muller and Angela Harutyunyan have taken their cue from Laurie Anderson’s ominous 1982 song “From the Air” where she describes the duration between becoming conscious that the plane will crash and its actual impact.     The show proposes to critically question our relationship to time, as well as our relationship to the mechanisms of recording time, particularly in moments of crisis or other transformative contexts.  

The exhibition opens on September 13th 2014 and will travel to Beirut in 2015.

For more information on Perpetuum Mobile please click on the AFAC page here

Mes Mains Sont Plus Agées Que Moi

Dance performance by Danya Hammoud

With Danya Hammoud, Khouloud Yassine and Mounzer Baalbaki  

Pre-production for Danya Hammoud's next dance performance Mes Mains Sont Plus Agées Que Moi begins! The soundtrack for prepared piano will be based on Schubert's Fantasy in F minor for 4 hands.

Premiere on June 4th 2014, opening of the June Events Festival at Carolyn Carlson's Atelier de Paris - France

The performance will then take part in different dance festivals in France: > Festival Uzès Danse - Festival Danse Contemporaine en Mediterannée (Marseille, Aix, Arles) - Festival Européen de Danse Contemporaine (Toulouse, Strasbourg) - Festival CDC Art Danse (Dijon, Bourgogne).

                                                            

 

To visit the project's website please click here

Women In Jazz Festival - Halle, Germany

Thrilled to have taken part in the Women In Jazz 2014 edition at the Opera House in Halle! An incredible experience with outstanding musicians from Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, Poland, Iran and Germany. The program included new arrangements on original compositions by Bodek Janke, Alex Morsey, Simin Tander and Cynthia Zaven. 

Caroline Thon (ld, sax) – DE

Veronika Todorova (acc) – BG

Feruza Ochilova (voc, dutar, doira) – UZ

Bodek Janke (perc) – PL

Negar Bouban (oud) – IR

Simin Tander (voc) – DE/AF

Cynthia Zaven (piano) - LB

Alexander Morsay (b) – DE

Sound check at the Halle Opera House, February 2014

photo by Raisa Galofre

 
 

photo by Raisa Galofre

photo by Raisa Galofre

Caroline Thon and Cynthia Zaven

 

© 2014 - 2023 Cynthia Zaven