Sat 5 April 7.30pm

In the Tavern of Sweet Songs (World premiere)

17 Poems from the Salaman & Absal of Jami

By David Lewiston Sharpe

Admission £10 : Reserve a place here

One who travel 'd in the Desert
Saw Majnun, where he was sitting
All alone like a Magician
Tracing letters in the Sand...
I am writing "LAILI" –
were it only "LAILI"
but a book of Love and Passion...

Jami's 15th-century epic Salaman and Absal is a Sufi mystic allegory meditating on the theme of divine love – invoking God but, in the Joycean sense, universalising the specific to create a poem of far-reaching significance that has the power to touch us all. Edward Fitzgerald's translation of Jami's Salaman and Absal will be performed by the writer and poet Raficq Abdulla, with Fitzgerald's text interspersing the songs of the cycle, sung by soprano Katherine Fellowes, for whom the cycle has been specifically written by the composer David Lewiston Sharpe.

The music weaves itself through the narrative as a series of meditative vignettes illuminating the story – a story of a Shah's son, Salaman, and his destructive love for Absal that both binds and separates them, eventually undergoing an apotheosis that ultimately restores individual power and equilibrium.

These new songs are a series of simple stories. In the poem the texts illustrate the broader narrative of the epic as a sequence of asides; these songs seek to express the spiritual centre and emotional core of the story – and attempt as far as is possible to hold up a mirror to the world.

Katherine Fellowes (soprano) has studied law and ancient history and is currently undertaking postgraduate vocal studies at Trinity College of Music. She sings with Encoro, Harlow Chorus and has recently established the Erato Consort, an early music vocal ensemble specialising in madrigals of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Raficq Abdulla (narrator) is a writer and poet and has worked as a lawyer for many years in the private sector. He was University Secretary of and now Visiting Fellow at Kingston University. He writes and lectures on spirituality, art and poetry and has written and presented programmes on BBC World Service, Radio 3 and 4. He is the author of Words of Paradise and The Conference of the Birds (publ. Frances Lincoln) – new interpretations Rumi and Attar. He has written series of poems based on his readings of Rilke, Lorca, Shakespeare's sonnets and Tao sayings.

David Lewiston Sharpe (composer / pianist) studied at King's College London, the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He is the composer of over 60 musical works and his Piano Concerto was premiered by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Nicholas Cleobury, and broadcast on ClassicFM. His music has been heard across the UK and in the USA.