“…My home has no place, no sign, no trace, I am neither in body nor soul, nor anywhere other than my love’s life and soul. If ever I spent a moment without you, I’d repent it the rest of my life.” – Rumi TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW: verdigrismusic.org Commissioned by and written specifically for Verdigris, this WORLD PREMIERE immerses its audience into a love story. The story of Rumi and Shams is one of pure transformation. Love means losing yourself into a space where real change may emerge. Sahba’s work inhabits this ancient poetry and music and language and takes the contemporary listener on this same journey of discovery. Verdigris Ensemble presents its Dallas World Premiere of “SHAMS” -- this powerful performance art experience incorporates 16 voices, a string quartet, pre-recorded sounds, visual projection, and staging. It boasts the most extensive collection worldwide of Rumi poetry set to music in its original Farsi. The work is a synergetic collaboration between internationally acclaimed Iranian composer Sabha Aminikia, the Crow Museum of Asian Art at the University of Texas at Dallas, Syrian visual artist Kevork Mourad, and Verdigris Ensemble.

Our 5th Flying Carpet Festival, the mobile festival for children in conflict zones is coming back to the Turkish Syrian border again between September 15th-25th, 2023. Our open call for artists is now open as well. Please go to: http://www.flyingcarpetfestival.org/apply to apply to be one of our guest artists. Please support our festival at: http://www.flyingcarpetfestival.org/donate Flying Carpet Festival is the first mobile multi-disciplinary arts festival for vulnerable and refugee children living in difficult places worldwide. The Flying Carpet Festival was created in 2018 by Sahba Aminikia, a San Francisco-based Iranian American music composer, in collaboration with Her Yerde Sanat Dernegi (Art Anywhere Association), originally a social circus school and a cultural organization based in Mardin, Türkiye, near the Turkish Syrian border where 3.6 million refugees, half of whom are children are resettled. Other programs held by Her Yerde Sanat Dernegi include; Sirkhane (circus and acrobatic workshops), Sirkhane Darkroom (analog photography workshops), and Müzikhane (music workshops). The festival annually brings 20-40 artists, musicians, dancers, acrobats, and storytellers to the Turkish Syrian border as part of an artist residency. It engages them in creating a cohesive artistic story-telling experience decorated with music, dance, circus arts, and visual projection for children of Syrian, Turkish, and Kurdish origin. The festival forms collaborations between artists-in-residence, local artists, and children artists. Since its conception, The Flying Carpet Festival has reached out to 15,000 children through 38 live performances and 250 workshops and has hosted 82 artists. It also has been mentioned in San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Associated Press, KALW, Medium, and I Care if You Listen. In previous years, Flying Carpet has been sponsored by the United States Embassy in Adana, BMZ (German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development), and the Italian Cultural Institute in Istanbul. Video: Ozgür Mert

"In September 2022, the death of a 22-year old woman, Mahsa Amini, in custody of morality police, sparked an ongoing series of protests against the state's gender apartheid. The Islamic republic's violent crackdown on the protestors has escalated this movement into a full-blown uprising across the country and around the globe. In Iran, protests have been going on every day for the past 2.5 months. 16,813 people have been arrested, and 402 have been gunned down by the security forces, 58 of whom were minors. The Iranian people's revolution asks for FREEDOM and EQUALITY for all." - Sahba Aminikia ------------------------------ text translation: Oh, dear! Join us! Join us! Don’t remain stranded by yourself! For this pain, that we share, Will not recover, In me, the lonesome me, In you, the lonely you. This difficult life, For us, Without a shared battle, Will never become easier. Don’t remain by yourself, Join us, dear! Oh, dear! Join us! Join us! Don’t remain stranded by yourself! For this pain, that we share, Will not recover, In me, the lonesome me, In you, the lonely you. ------------------------------ Music by Parviz Meshkatian (arranged by Sahba Aminikia) Video by Nima Dehghani Performed by KRONOS QUARTET David Harrington, violin John Sherba, violin Hank Dutt, viola Sunny Yang, cello Kronos Quartet appears courtesy of the Kronos Performing Arts Association. SHIRAZ CHOIR AND ENSEMBLE Somaieh Amini, Zahra Asgari, Avideh Danaii, Soheila Farahani, Haleh Ghaffari, Zhila Hariri, Fahimeh Jasbi, Parisa Mirfakhraei, Amin Assadi, Reza Mokhtari, Hadi Rismanchi, and Masoud Tavazoei Amin Assadi, Musical Director and Conductor

Sahba Aminikia's KAVUKI, arranged for Kronos and Iranian tenor Shahram Nazeri, premiered June 16 in KRONOS FESTIVAL Program #2. KAVUKI also features beautiful hand-drawn artwork by Kevork Mourad and digital animation by Vafa Aminikia. #KronosFestival

Sahba Aminikia: House of Circus with video by Pinar Demiral and featuring the "Circus Heroes" of the Sirkhane Social Circus School (www.sirkhane.org) Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra Artistic Director, Brian Dowdy Steve Cronk, flute Diane Benjamin, oboe Misen Luu, clarinet Brian Hadley, bassoon Tim Dwight, horn Buffy Larson and Gordon Meyers, trumpets Brian McCullough, trombone Dean Shea, tuba Sarah Johnson, percussion Catherine Himmerich and Joe Dolson, violins Lucas Moen, viola Kristin Snow, cello Jason Anderson, bass Brian Dowdy, conductor

(20 Oct 2021) LEAD IN: In its third edition, the Flying Carpet Festival drew smiles on the faces of children from impoverished communities in southeast Turkey. The festival is a visual and musical spectacle performed by artists from around the world. STORY-LINE: With circus performances including acrobatics, juggling and stilt walking, organizers of the Flying Carpet Festival in Turkey always come prepared to entertain. In a recent event in the southeastern city of Mardin, performers regaled the children with a show featuring a giant puppet, followed by a music performance and tales told by a storyteller, among other segments.   The festival is organized by a volunteer-based collective of artists who perform for vulnerable and refugee children in southeast Turkey, at the border with Syria. Among the performers was 21-year-old Mahmoud al-Faris, who was beside himself with happiness because he gets to teach at the circus school years after arriving to Turkey as a refugee. In total, the festival this year has reached more than 6,000 children from Syrian, Kurdish and Turkish backgrounds. "We mostly target children who are in need of beauty and come from the most deserved communities," says festival founder Sahba Aminikia. "There is lack of access in these communities to any form of actual culture and artistic activity," he adds. So Aminikia, an Iranian-American music composer and pianist himself, rolls up his sleeves and starts to entertain the children, playing the piano and singing with them. This year alone, he has performed alongside artists from across the world including American, Italian, French, Armenian, Iraqi, Turkish, Iranian and Venezuelan artists. Some of the festival's shows in certain villages were cancelled this year because of COVID-19 restrictions. The shows have had to relocate to schools, bringing performances to eight schools and two neighborhoods. The festival is a collaboration with the Mardin-based Sirkhane social circus school, which helps to restore confidence in refugee youth. In addition to receiving private donations, the festival gets funding from Germany's BMZ and the Welthungerhilfe. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/e5746c52c8a84bb297b1d32e3e1e5ce2