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Yellow Bus at the Toronto International Film Festival

In Yellow Bus, Wendy Bednarz’s feature debut, an Indian woman living in the Arabian Gulf embarks on a search for truth and accountability after her daughter is left to die on a school bus in the sweltering desert heat. The film is the first one to be shot in the Indian community of Abu Dhabi and is in Hindi, English, Arabic, Urdu, and Tagalog.

I am happy to have composed the soundtrack of this beautiful film that will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in less than a month.

To know more about the screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival, please click here

Best Music Award

Honored to have received the Best Music Award for the soundtrack of Beirut Hold’em, a film directed by Michel Kammoun, at the Lebanese Movie Awards!

To know more about the festival, click here

Collaboration with ICONEM

Happy to have composed the music for Reminiscence of a Moving City’s Many Stories, a video by Gaël Labousse (ICONEM) for the Sursock Museum in Beirut. ICONEM is an innovative startup that specializes in the digitization of endangered cultural heritage sites in 3D. The video is created out of 30.000 images stitched together in what is considered an outstanding work of contemporary photogrammetry.

In view at the Fouad Debbas Collection Gallery, Level 1 until February 2024.

For more info on the Debbas collection and the video, please click here

Music in Film

Fondation Liban Cinema celebrated Music in Lebanese cinema on Monday April the 24th at the beautiful Fondation Charles Corm with filmmakers and composers.

Filmmaker Vatche Boulghourjian and I (via Zoom) discussed the process of making music for film and our collaboration on recent projects. A conversation moderated by Zeina Saleh Kayali.

Belfast

Thrilled to have been part of the international cultural delegation invited by the British Council for the 25th Anniversary of the signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. The program included meetings, talks and conferences by local and international artists, as well as concerts and screenings exploring the meaning of peace and moving forward in a city still dominated by the looming presence of the Belfast dividing wall.

Finalizing Sound and Music for Yellow Bus

Yellow Bus is the first feature film in Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and English shot in the Hindu community of Abu Dhabi and written and directed by Wendy Bednarz.

I am happy to have composed the soundtrack of this beautiful film that we just finished mixing with Lama Sawaya at DB Studios Beirut.

Beirut Cinema Platform Mentorship

Every year, Beirut Cinema Platform (BCP) offers the opportunity for Arab independent filmmakers and producers working on feature-length films to meet with film professionals from around the globe to build partnerships, collaborations, and co-productions.

As a music mentor, I was happy to discuss The Last Man with filmmaker Muhammad Salah and producer Mark Lotfy from Egypt. The Last Man got awarded the CNC cash prize at the BCP 2023 edition.

For more info on the 2023 edition, please click here

Morse Code Composition at Alte Schmiede, Vienna

10 years after its first performance at Irtijal Festival by Alessandra Rombola (flute) and Esteban Algora Aguilar (accordion), Morse Code Composition will be performed by Maria Mogas Gensana and Audrey G. Perreault at Alte Schmiede, Vienna on December 21st, part of the second volume of A room of one‘s own program by the Between Feathers Ensemble. The program includes music from female composers from Japan, the United States, Poland, Lebanon, Denmark and England.

Program:

Yu Kuwabara. Doll-Blind b‘. (2007/2012). Flute and accordion with projection of Rebecca Akoun‘s animation.

Kristina Wolfe. Dukh. (2013). Soprano, flute, accordion and electronics.

Lisa R Coons. Essay I: Mater (2019). Soprano, alto flute, accordion and electronics.

Agata Zubel. Unisono II (2004). Soprano, accordion, electronics.

Rebecca Saunders. O Yes & I (2018). Soprano and Flute.

Cynthia Zaven. Morse code composition. (2012). Flute and accordion.

Kirstine Lindemann. Further and Back. (2015). Open instrumentation.

Ultima Festival 2022

Looking forward to being in Norway for Ultima, Oslo’s Contemporary Music Festival!

The Neue Vocalsolisten will perform the Voice Affairs program that includes my piece for 6 voices, Madrigal d’Essilio on September 20th, at the Kulturkirken Jakob.

For more info on the Ultima Festival 2022 program, please click here

Sediments on BBC Radio 3

Click here to listen to my latest composition Sediments performed by the Danapris String Quartet. It will be available on the New Music Show of the BBC Radio 3 for 24 days. Sediments begins at 1:37:25

For Voice And Forest at Modka Beiroet

My video For Voice And Forest (2016) will be screened at Modka Beiroet in Zutphen, Holland, part of “The Fabric of Memory” exhibition by Fatima Barznge. Opening on February 5 and 6.

 

© 2014 - 2026 Cynthia Zaven