(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

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

Digital Program Book: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xfl9h3cz1gjhcfm/June%20Program.pdf?dl=0 Support the MPO at mnphil.org William Grant Still (arr. Lesnick): “I Ride an Old Paint” from Miniatures Danielle Boor, flute Diane Benjamin, oboe Misen Luu, clarinet Teresa Manzella, horn Brian Hadley, bassoon Paul Bonneau: Caprice en Forme de Valse Brian Hadley, bassoon Amy Beach: Pastorale for Wind Quintet Danielle Boor, flute Diane Benjamin, oboe Misen Luu, clarinet Teresa Manzella, horn Brian Hadley, bassoon Missy Mazzoli: Kinski Paganini Catherine Himmerich, violin Jonathan Russell: In the Fir Trees: Fireflies Isabel Arenivar and Rebecca Eilers, violins Blake Scheib, viola Marinos Glitsos, cello Sahba Aminikia: House of Circus with video by Pinar Demiral and featuring the "Circus Heroes" of the Sirkhane Social Circus School 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

Nasrin’s Dream is inspired by the voices of the people from all around the world, every one of them appearing like drops of rain: once these drops turn into rain, no power in the world will be able to resist them. Nasrin Sotoudeh is an Iranian human rights lawyer who was wrongfully sentenced to 38 years of prison and 148 lashes for defending women's right to choose their own attire. This piece was created in August 2020, during her 46-day hunger strike to protest the conditions of political prisoners in Iran during the COVID-19 pandemic. In December 2020, #NasrinSotoudeh was awarded the Eleanor Roosevelt Prize for her career-long dedication to the advancement of universal human rights. Today, NASRIN, a documentary about her life’s work, was released on all streaming platforms: http://www.nasrinfilm.com #freeNasrin Nasrin’s Dream, with music by Sahba Aminikia and visuals by Pınar Demiral, was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies at Stanford University, with additional support from the Kronos Performing Arts Association.

San Francisco Girls Chorus Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Artistic Director Chorus School Level II Monica Covitt, director With special guests Kronos Quartet, The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and the Sirkhane Circus School

Kronos Quartet and friends premiere "Salam Aleykom" (2020) from home. As part of the Pohoda in the Air online festival, Kronos Quartet premiered an expanded performance of Sahba Aminikia's re-imagination of Hassan Kassai’s theme "Salam Aleykom," which Kronos originally released as a work for quartet. In an expression of the humanitarian promise of these words that mean "peace and health be upon you," 44 musicians, artists, and even jugglers from 13 different countries join Kronos for this performance. Each video in the composite was individually recorded by each artist and edited together by Sahba Aminikia. Thank you all of the artists! Sahba Aminikia, keytar (Iran/USA) Kinan Azmeh, clarinet (Syria) William Barton, didgeridoo (Australia) Layale Chaker, violin (Lebanon/France) Marco Persis Coppola, duhol (Italy/USA) Atabak Elyasi, setar (Iran) Her Yerde Sanat Derneği / Sirkhane Social Circus School, jugglers (Turkish/Syrian border) Pinar Demiral, co-founder (Turkey/USA) The Living Earth Show (USA) Soo Yeon Lyuh, haegeum (South Korea/USA) Sahba Motallebi, tar (Iran/USA) Ben Opie, oboe (Australia) Ceren Oran, dance (Turkey/Germany) San Francisco Girls Chorus, vocals (USA) Valérie Sainte-Agathe, artistic director (France/USA) Ziya Tabassian, tombak and daf (Iran/Canada) Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat, vocals (Iran) Vân-ÁnhVõ, đàn bầu and percussion (Vietnam/USA) Wu Man, pipa (China/USA) Watch the original quartet version of "Salam Aleykom" and learn more about the piece: https://kronosquartet.org/salam-aleykom-for-peace-and-health-for-all-of-humanity/