Levantine Rhapsody

Levantine Rhapsody was born to create a deeply personal musical language, one in which the shimmering voice of the kanun enters into dialogue with flute, cello, and percussion. Rooted in Turkish makams, asymmetrical rhythmic cycles, and improvisation, the music unfolds through an evocative and impressionistic sound world where East and West meet not in opposition, but in resonance. Born into a musical family in Istanbul, Didem Başar has forged a singular artistic voice at the crossroads of Turkish musical heritage and Western classical expression. An internationally acclaimed kanun virtuoso, composer, and educator, she draws upon the rich traditions of Ottoman makam music while embracing the colors, textures, and forms of contemporary chamber music. Released in 2020, Levantine Rhapsody was met with critical acclaim in Québec, receiving nominations for Album of the Year from both ADISQ and the Conseil Québécois de la Musique. In 2021, it was awarded the Prix Opus for Album of the Year in the category of World Music and Traditional Québec Music. Tonight’s program is shaped by memory, migration, improvisation, and the enduring movement of cultures across time and geography. Through these compositions, Didem Başar invites you into a poetic musical landscape where forgotten voices, ancestral echoes, and contemporary expression intertwine in a continuous search for connection and coexistence. ARTISTS Didem Başar Direction, Composition, Kanun Guy Pelletier Bass Flute and Transverse Flute Dominique Beauséjour-Ostiguy Cello Patrick Graham Percussion Co-presented with The World Music Institute BIOGRAPHIES DIDEM BAŞAR Born into a musical family in Istanbul, Didem Başar is an internationally acclaimed kanun virtuoso, composer, and educator whose artistry creates a luminous dialogue between Turkish musical heritage and Western classical traditions. Trained in kanun performance and composition at the Istanbul Turkish Music State Conservatory, she later completed a Master’s degree at Marmara University with a specialization in Mevlevi music. Since settling in Montreal in 2007, Başar has emerged as a leading voice in Canada’s intercultural music landscape. She has collaborated with renowned ensembles including Ensemble Constantinople, I Musici de Montréal, and Oktoécho, and has appeared as soloist with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal under Kent Nagano and the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec under Clemens Schuldt. Her performances have taken her across Europe, North America, East Asia, North Africa, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. Her album Levantine Rhapsody received the Prix Opus for World Music Album of the Year, while her latest recording, Continuum, earned two Opus Awards in 2024 for Best Album and Concert of the Year. GUY PELLETIER His experiences are many and varied: soloist, chamber musician, and improviser. He is comfortable in all musical idioms and has played with contemporary, classical, jazz, rock, and world-music groups. He has taken part in more than 300 premieres and worked personally as a soloist with composers such as Mauricio Kagel, Pierre Boulez, Franco Donatoni, Jonathan Harvey, and more. He has made several tours of North America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania and recorded dozens of Canadian, American, French, and German radio concerts and performances in addition to more than sixty CDs of various productions. He composed or co-composed about thirty pieces for the modern music duo Traces, and many arrangements and compositions for Trio Nomad’s Land (Gnawa music) and Brazilian music trio Expresso. Guy Pelletier was flute teacher at Collège de Trois-Rivières 5 (classical and jazz) from 1996 to 2017 and at Concordia University (classical and contemporary) from 2000 to 2019. He remains particularly open-minded toward nonconformist artistic projects and always interested in creative and exploratory music of all kinds. DOMINIQUE BEAUSÉJOUR-OSTIGUY Grand winner of the 2018 Prix d’Europe, the 2021 Choquette- Symcox Award, and the 2017 Peter Mendell Award, cellist Dominique Beauséjour-Ostiguy is ranked among the “30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30” (CBC Music, 2018). Twice recipient of first prize at the Canadian Music Competition, Dominique performs as a soloist with several orchestras including the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, the Laval Symphony Orchestra, the Drummondville Symphony Orchestra, the Estuaire Symphony Orchestra, and the Lévis Symphony Orchestra. A sought-after and committed chamber musician, Dominique is a founding member of the Trio de l’Île and the Andara Quartet. He joined the Hochelaga Trio in 2018 and the Vox Populi Quartet in 2024. He also plays in duo with pianist Jean-Michel Dubé, guitarist Christ Habib, and violinist Marie Bégin. Despite his young age, he already has 11 records to his credit. Also a composer, Dominique won the 3rd grand artistic prize in the Domicile Adoré composition competition in 2020. Two of his compositions were played by the Laval Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Alain Trudel. He is a founding member of the BOA experience duo, an instrumental music project with a cinematic flavor which presents only original compositions and develops numerous multimedia projects. His album Aux deux hemispheres, supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, presents the complete of his “classical” compositions for cello and piano. Dominique plays on a David Tecchler cello (1704) with a Pierre Simon bow (c. 1855), all graciously made available to him by the company Canimex Inc. of Drummondville (QC), Canada. 6 PATRICK GRAHAM Patrick Graham is an accomplished percussionist, improviser, composer, and instructor from Montreal, Canada. Patrick’s life-long fascination with percussion and passion for sonic textures has led him on a globe-traversing journey, studying contemporary Western percussion, the frame drum traditions of the Mediterranean and Middle-East, South Indian rhythm, and Japanese taiko. He re-imagines this world of influences, bridging farflung rhythms and coaxing a vast palette of colours from an array of instruments. Patrick has co- created percussion collectives, chamber, folk and jazz ensembles, dance, theatre, and multi-disciplinary pieces, and he has been featured on dozens of albums and soundtracks. His first solo album, Rheō, was hailed in 2009 as one of the top albums of the year by the CBC Radio’s The Signal. In 2020, he released Lumina, an album of solo improvisations, and Refractions, an EP of electro-acoustic music. Patrick Graham performs extensively with the acclaimed ensemble Constantinople, touring worldwide on five continents.