Montreal concerts

Estuaire and Other Crossings

To mark Constantinople’s 25th anniversary, Ablaye Cissoko and Kiya Tabassian celebrate more than fifteen years of artistic collaboration in a concert featuring Estuary, their latest project, while revisiting some of the most beloved works from their albums Jardins migrateurs and Traversées.

Carried by the extraordinary musical rapport between Kiya Tabassian’s setar, Ablaye Cissoko’s kora, and Patrick Graham’s percussion, this performance reflects the richness of an artistic dialogue nurtured over the years across traditions, imaginations, and shared horizons.

This anniversary concert offers a journey filled with poetry, depth, and humanity, celebrating one of the most remarkable collaborations in Constantinople’s history.

Kiya Tabassian and his ensemble Constantinople present a contemporary reinterpretation of the Rubaiyat, the renowned collection of poems by Persian poet, astronomer, and mathematician Omar Khayyam. In collaboration with singer Ghalia Benali, they pay tribute to the legacy of Umm Kulthum, the iconic voice of Middle Eastern music, by revisiting the compositions of Riad Al Sunbati that brought these quatrains to life. Through new arrangements and original compositions by Tabassian, the project creates a vibrant dialogue between centuries-old Sufi poetry and the sounds of today, bridging Arab and Persian musical traditions.