Layale Chaker

"“Haunting yet quietly rigorous… Often there seems to be more breath than voice in these wordless poems, though other times Ms. Chaker draws full-bellied sounds, or sketches out silvery arpeggios.”

— Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, New York Times

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  • Co-commissioned by New York Philharmonic & Nebraska Crossroads Music Festival & Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra, Dawning is a musical love letter to the new souls who have joined us earthside amid our trying times. Resilient seedlings sprouting from the cracks of leaden landscapes, symbolizing the enduring spirit of life and the promise of a new dawn.

    It's a testament to the human capacity to create and nurture life, even in the face of adversities, and a poignant reminder that even in the darkest of times, there is room for joy, love, and the promise of a brighter future

    Stemming from the many lullabies we have been singing to our son for the past three years, and which have become the leitmotivs to our lives, Dawning unfolds in four movements: Dusk, Oxytocin, In-descence, and Nightfall. The movements pour into one another like a dance between joy and exhaustion, primal, uncontainable love and anxiety, laughter and tears, chaos and tranquility.

    "Emerging out of nothingness," as the score mentions it, Dusk rises to a mist of uncertainty that gradually dissi-pates, erupting in a moment of indeterminate euphoria in Oxytocin, alluding to the love hormone that submerges the psyche of parents in their early days. The subtle leitmotivs become increasingly evident in the second part of the piece. We encounter celebratory and lively iterations of the aforementioned lullabies in Iridescence, which ultimately gradually dissolve into the final movement, Nightfall, a cathartic release of weariness and serenity.

    As performer-composers, collaborating on a composition is already a rare occurrence, but co-compos-ing with your life partner is even more extraordinary. In our first time embarking on such an exercise, we allowed the lived experience to overlap, inform. and intertwine with the compositional process itself, making way for a musical creation resulting from our shared life's creation. A common contemplation on the human journey we are on together, made with the ever-changing colors of sleepless nights and new daily discoveries, time, energy, and love, and a certain amount of musical and practical improvisation that are deemed necessary for any new parents.

    Dawning utilizes quotes from Ya Sheikh el Bakri and Hal Sissan, lullabies from the popular Levantine Arabic repertoire.

    See project page for more information.

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ARTIST BIO

Violinist and composer Layale Chaker has dedicated much of her work to the exploration of the an artistic voice that finds itself at the cross-section of contemporary, jazz and Arabic Maqam music.

This blending of seemingly disparate sounds and traditions is prevalent in her most recent recording with SARAFAND, her primary artistic vehicle and ensemble de force. This album features all original compositions by Chaker inspired by Lebanese modernist poet Onsi El Hajj.

This nine-part suite was composed by Layale Chaker in 2023. “Radio Afloat” is the vision of a radio lost at sea, evoking a reflection on the intertwined destinies of people and the natural world, which manifest even louder in times of collective pain. These contrasts mirrors the ebb and flow of politics of power, conflict and dominance that exacerbate the vulnerability of the land and those who tend to it.

The core of the work is centered around El Hajj's poem “The Trace of Blue Passion”:

And just as birds flock wisely I trekked from ocean to ocean From peak to branch From night to night to night Until I was hit With the prestige of sweet madness. After we witnessed the extent of birds' wisdom I remind you that it is in the nature of creatures To harm themselves. I was a turtle on the rocks Engraved on tree trunks and bolsters Engraved on rings Engraved on the ankles of mountains. And I saw space So I saw space And when I saw its beauty, I fell in love with a dove who carried me. And when she smelled, adoringly, the earth on me She laid me down in the soil And from the dove, I raised myself

The touring personnel for this project includes cellist Jake Charkey, pianist Phillip Golub, bassist Sam Minaie, and percussionist John Hadfield.

Listen to the recording here

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