Name: Kayhan Kalhor Ensemble
Start: 2024-11-14T20:00:00
Location: The Stoller Hall

The Stoller Hall

This semi-staged concert is based on our preconceptions of mental illness, with each piece having a connection to the psychology of the mind – centred around Peter Maxwell Davies’ harrowing depiction of the ‘madness’ of King George III.

Maxwell Davies was a key member of the Manchester School of Composers, who reshaped the landscape of British music in the late 20th century. 8 Songs for a Mad King is a melodrama with a libretto based on the real-life observations of King George III, presenting an extravagant and disturbing portrayal of his condition. 

Vocalising weirdly as he bemoans his fate, trying to teach his instrumentalist-birds to sing – our musicians becoming projections from within his own mind.

Manchester Camerata: 8 Songs for a Mad King

Kayhan Kalhor’s Lost in the Desert Sky is a tribute to Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, the Iranian singer who passed away in 2020. The title refers to the 2000 album Night Silence Desert, a collaboration between Shajarian, Kalhor and other big names in Iranian music. In this new work, which was created during the covid-19 pandemic and has only started recently to go around the world, Kayhan Kalhor once again seeks out the spheres of Khorasan.  He explores the classical poetry of Saadi Shirazi and introduces a number of young musicians to the audience, together with vocalist Hadi Hosseini who was a student of the late Shajarian.