The Friends of the ESNCM UK would like to invite you to our next concert, a special recital, in aid of the Palestine Youth Orchestra (PYO) planned UK Tour in Summer 2016.
Flute and Piano Recital
Wednesday, 11th November 2015 at 7.30pm
Wissam Boustany ~Flute & Aleksander Szram ~Piano
Guest Performance by Maya Khaldi
Programme will include:
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata in B flat
Wissam Boustany: Broken Child
Gabriel Fauré: Sonata in A Op. 13
Price: £70 (including food)
The recital will be held at a private venue and places are limited.
Please RSVP to our Administrator, Zina Papageorgiou at zina@palmusic.org.uk, or call 0044 (0) 7934058883
Musicians’ Biographies:
‘…The playing by both Boustany and Szram is sensitive, lyric, and emotionally charged…’ Flute Talk (January 2012)
Wissam Boustany:
Wissam Boustany’s international career as a concert artist and teacher has taken him to South and North America, Europe, Middle and the Far East. In 1995, Boustany founded Toward Humanity, an international initiative using music as a catalyst to support humanitarian projects on an international scale. Born in Lebanon, Wissam began his musical studies with his stepfather. He moved to Britain in 1977 where he studied at Chetham’s School of Music & the Royal Northern College of Music with Trevor Wye. He has received many awards, notably the Silver Medal in the 1982 Madeira International Flute Competition and in the same year the Woodwind Prize in the Royal Overseas League Competition. He received the silver medal in the Shell/LSO competition and won the 2nd prize in the woodwind section of the first BBC Young Musician of the Year. In 1997, he was awarded a knighthood by the Lebanese government (Chevalier de l’Ordre du Cedre) in recognition of his music and peace work. On 3rd February 1998 he was presented with the Crystal Award at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Wissam is also a Trustee of the Friends of the ESNCM UK.
Aleksander Szram has performed at major UK venues and in thirty countries across five continents, including concerts in Palestine, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Greece with Wissam Boustany. As a collaborative pianist he has also worked with the British Flute Society, and with Rachel Brown, Stefan Hoskuldsson, Ian Pace, Paul Edmund-Davies, Lorna McGhee, Anna Noakes, James Galway, Jonathan Snowden, Jean Ferrandis and Andras Adorjan. He teaches piano and lectures at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, and is particularly interested in contemporary music, having recorded and premiered several music by many composers including Rzewski, Runswick, Bedford and Fujikura. Aleks holds a DMA in Piano Performance from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He won the Vlado Perlemuter Award in 2004.
Maya Khaldi was born in Jerusalem in the late 1980s and graduated from Berklee College of Music, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Music. At Berklee, Maya focused on Vocal Performance and Music Education and was also performing with the University’s Middle Eastern ensemble. Following her BA, Maya returned to Palestine to teach at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Jerusalem and Ramallah. Apart from teaching Music Theory, she was also leading the outreach choirs in Jerusalem. Maya never stops searching for her voice, composing new music and singing with multiple groups, such as the A Capella group ‘’Istewanat’’, which she has founded. Maya is now studying a two- years Master’s Degree in Music Leadership at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her Master’s Degree is generously funded by the Friends of ESNCM UK supporters.