Samai (2018)

Composed and performed by Feras Charestan Samai (also transliterated sama’i or sema’i) is a venerable compositional form in Arabic and Ottoman classical music, typically in 6/8 meter. Performed both as secular art music and as part of the liturgical musical repertoire that accompanies the sacred dance of the Mevlevi Sufi order (“whirling dervishes”), samai continues to serve contemporary composer-performers, like Feras Charestan, as a vessel of tradition-based musical innovation. Feras Charestan is from the city of Al-Hasakeh, in the northeast of Syria, and studied qanun at the High Institute of Music in Damascus. He has performed as a qanun soloist with symphony orchestras and has been a member of popular bands as well as contemporary music ensembles, creating new music rooted in Middle Eastern traditions. Feras Charestan currently lives in Stockholm, Sweden.