Concerts

The Kytasty Family Saga

The Bandura is the national instrument of Ukraine and also the emblem of Ukrainian cultural history and identity. The Kytasty family the living example of that tradition surviving exile and thriving in a new enviroment. Featuring nationally recognized bandurist and Kobzar, Julian Kytasty, Alina, Teryn and Irene Kuzma.

July 24, 2022

Featuring a collection of improvisation-based music by the festival’s artists, including Kinan Azmeh’s Suite for Improvisor(s) and Orchestra

July 30, 2022

Kinan Azmeh returns to Lincoln for an intimate look at the Syrian composer’s more intimate chamber works. Azmeh’s works are connected to meaningful places and stories that transport the listener somewhere very far away, yet that still feels like home. Azmeh will be joined on stage by local musicians and storytellers, for improvisations based on Syrian folk songs.

July 28, 2022

Featuring Gabriel Kahane

8980: Book of Travelers is an attempt to rediscover and celebrate our collective humanity in the face of deep political and cultural divisions. The day after the 2016 presidential election, Gabriel Kahane set out on an 8,980 mile train trip around the continental U.S. with no phone or internet connection. The song cycle/monodrama that resulted etches a series of intimate character studies and offers a seed of hope in the notion that when we step outside of our digital lives, we may have more in common with our fellow Americans than we’re often led to believe.   

July 26, 2022

Featuring the “The Bow and the Read” – a new work by Lebanese composer and violinist Layale Chaker for violin and vocal ensemble.

“The Bow and the Read” explores and evokes an ancient language–Aramaic– that is normally confined to church and sacred music, and sets it outside of these limits. The texts explore pre-Christian divinations to gods and goddesses of Babylon, as well as contemporary Assyrian poets, from Iraq, in which they speak about love, life, death, war and migration in their native language. 

July 27, 2022

On his new album, Gabriel Kahane chronicles the final month of a year spent off the internet. Shuttling between the quotidian mundane and a series of overlapping global crises, he sings of grief, nostalgia, shame, and salvation: a portrait of daily life in the roiling chaos of the 21st century. This performance will feature world-premiere arrangements of parts of the album for Crossroads’ Artists.

July 29, 2022