Today's Edition
ABU DHABI (ALETIHAD)
For its final scheduled performance in Abu Dhabi, the UAE National Orchestra will be presenting “Echoes of Time: Ibn Arabi” at NYU Abu Dhabi’s The Arts Centre on Wednesday, February 25 (9:30pm).
For hundreds of years, the words of Ibn Arabi, the 13th-century Sunni scholar and Sufi mystic, have resonated through cultures and generations, speaking of love, unity, and the search for meaning.
The world premiere of “Echoes of Time: Ibn Arabi”, composed by Nadim Tarabay and commissioned by the UAE National Orchestra, transforms this timeless wisdom into a symphonic poem, conducted by Ahmed Farag.
Voice meets Arabic and Western instruments in this seamless dialogue, guiding the audience through seven poems, each spoken into presence and answered by a tapestry of sound, expressed through the choir and shaped instrumentally by the orchestra.
The oud answers the violin, the ney echoes the human breath, and the choir lifts words into air and light. Each note moves between stillness and awakening, between memory and discovery, inviting the listener to experience time as emotion, not chronology.
The music draws on the spirit of Sufi sama, the art of deep listening, weaving classical harmony with improvisation and grace. The result is both intimate and expansive, a soundscape where silence and melody coexist, inviting the listener to pause, breathe, and listen with the heart.
Tarabay is a Lebanese contemporary classical composer and orchestrator whose work bridges Middle Eastern musical heritage and modern orchestral writing.
Farag is a former Cairo Opera House conductor whose repertoire spans opera, ballet and symphonic works.
The UAE National Orchestra’s next scheduled performance, “Faces of Love”, will be at the Fujairah Cultural Centre Theatre on March 26.
