DESCRIPTION:
Comprised of up to 14 of the UK’s finest musicians, Ensemble Zar is a fresh and fearless cross-genre ensemble whose mission is to express the Middle Eastern artistic temperament in its rawest form, and experiment with new sounds in the process. It’s musicians are well-versed in both Eastern and Western idioms, culminating in Western and Asian instruments, equally at home performing complex written contemporary music as well as masters of improvisation, relishing in the spontaneous nature of Oriental music. Ensemble Zar has performed in the concert hall, for theatre, live and recorded music for film. Venues have included the Southbank’s Purcell Room, Barbican, Birmingham Symphony Hall. Most notably, the Arabic section of the ensemble recently recorded the Oscar-winning film composer Gabriel Yared's film score for the new feature animation film, The Prophet, produced by Salma Hayek Pinault, at Abbey Road Studios in March 2014.

Bushra El-Turk - Composer
Bushra El-Turk's music of ‘...ironic...’ and ‘limitless imagination’ forebears the influence of her Lebanese roots and straddles Eastern and Western idioms. Her music has been performed by leading ensembles including the London Sinfonietta, Opera Holland Park, London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Orchestras, and performed by Western and multi- ethnic orchestras across Europe, the Middle East and the USA. Selected as one of the BBC 100 most inspiring women, she is founder and artistic director of the cross-genre ensemble, Ensemble Zar.

To book Ensemble Zar, go to:

www.bushraelturk.com