is an ensemble

dedicated to exploring

the musical interactions of the

rich cultures of the Mediterranean.

The group is named after one of the

great philosophers of classical Islam,

al-Farabi (d. ah 339/ ad 950), who was renowned

as both a musical theorist and a practising musician;

the medieval West knew him by the Latin version of his name,

Alpharabius. The ensemble is a collaboration of musicians

trained in the classical Arabic and Western medieval musical traditions.

respects these individual traditions and believes that bringing them into proximity illuminates both, revealing connections, suggesting affinities, and clarifying differences. Together the performers interpret mystical Sufi music from the Ottoman court of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and classical and traditional Syrian and Egyptian songs of love, interwoven with

troubadour poetry, Spanish devotional songs of the

thirteenth century, and fourteenth-century dances

tinged with the flavour of Italy’s trade with

Alexandria and Damascus.

•• • ••

The voices

of our ancestors

should not be forgotten,

for as they sang to one another

 so might they yet sing and teach us.