LAYTH SIDIQ ENSEMBLE Comes to Roulette With Maqam Mosaics: Original Works & Beloved Melodies From the Arab World

The extraordinary award-winning violinist/composer/educator Layth Sidiq brings together an outstanding ensemble of musicians in an eclectic program that highlights the beauty and diversity of the Arabic maqam (mode). The group, featuring Layth Sidiq (violin, vocal), Jacinta Clusellas (guitar), John Murchison (bass) and Jeremy Smith (percussion), will perform Layth's original compositions as well as distinctive arrangements of beloved melodies from the Arab world.

From instrumental improvisations (taqasim) that travel between multiple modes (maqamat) to complex rhythmic cycles and harmonic structures, the program will be a journey into the past, present and future of Arabic music. Layth is the current artistic director of the New York Arabic Orchestra, and has shared the stage with such major artists as Simon Shaheen, Danilo Perez, and Jack DeJohnette. He has also collaborated with Carnegie Hall on multiple educational projects and appeared around the world at renowned festivals and cultural institutions, including the London Jazz Festival, Boston Symphony Hall, WOMEX Expo, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and Carnegie Hall.

Layth Sidiq, a Jordanian with Iraqi roots, started his musical training at the National Music Conservatory in Amman with Timur Ibrahimov. At the age of 11, he had his first major solo performance with the European Chamber String Orchestra in front of Jordanian royalty. He came to the US to study at the Berklee College of Music where he received his bachelor's degree in performance in 2014; he went on to receive his master's degree from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute in 2016. He is featured on multiple award-winning albums and his first record, Son of Tigris, was premiered at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2016. In 2018, he won second prize at the Zbigniew Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition and was the first and only Arab to ever participate. In 2019, in collaboration with Carnatic vocalist Rohith Jayaraman, he released a new EP titled Hamsa, which brought together Arab and Carnatic music and showcased a new sound for both musical forms grounded in the past and the future. In 2020, he won the Boston Music Award for 'Best International Artist' of the year. In recent years he collaborated with the Kayany Foundation in Lebanon, an organization which operates educational programs for Syrian refugee children. He also directs the Center for Arabic Culture's Youth Orchestra Program in Boston and was a faculty member at Carnegie Hall's Music Educators Workshop.

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