Mohamed-Amine Kalaï and Maia Darmé form the musical duo known as Harkan. Their music focuses on the Mediterranean musical tradition performed with the qanun and harp, respectively. They define their music as an “alternation of attractive, furious pieces,” with an eclectic repertoire which mixes the traditional and the contemporary. Their music is a combination of traditional sounds of different types, ranging from traditional Celtic music to traditional Tunisian music, alongside modern experimental sounds. All of this can be seen in their innovative way of playing traditional instruments like the harp and qanun, a very unusual instrumental fusion. Their repertoire is a risky but successful proposal that combines instruments, techniques and musical traditions to create a different sort of music which allows younger audiences to approach it, without neglecting all other music lovers. 

 

Mohamed-Amine Kalaï and Maia Darmé met at a concert in the Tunis Municipal Theater in 2016, when they performed separately with the accompaniment of the Tunis Symphony Orchestra. It was not until May 2018 that they decided to form a duo, but now they have already triumphed in Tunisia:  they have performed at the festivals of Hergla, La Saison Bleue (Tunis Municipal Theater), the Tunis City of Culture, Palace Abdelliya and Ennejma Ezzahra, and have also given concerts at the French Institute of Tunis, the Archeological Museum of Sousse and the Agora. Their performance at Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Madrid and Cordoba has been highly awaited over the past year, and at last we will get the chance to enjoy their music as part of our schedule of activities for the month of Ramadan.  

 

Mohamed-Amine Kalaï is a Tunisian qanun player who began his studies at the Regional Conservatory of Kairouan, where he specialized in Arab music, and more specifically, the qanun. He won first prize at the Tunisian Young Musicians Festival in 2006 in the category of qanun players. In 2013, he won first prize at the “Neapolis Music Days” festival and the Golden Rabeb. He has played at festivals such as the Ennejma Ezzahra Young Virtuoso Festival (2014), the International Festival of Peoples in Aradeo and the Ottoman Music Summer School organized by the University of Istanbul in 2015. In 2012, he published a collection of 57 works. His first album, Mukkadima, included anonymous pieces from the Andalusi repertoire of Tunisian music. 

 

Maia Darmé is a French harpist, one of the new promising harp talents who is committed to making young people more familiar with the instrument through experimentations with contemporary music, playing styles from jazz to electronic music. She received her earliest education in Brittany, France, and at the age of six she learned to play the Celtic harp; at the age of nine, she won first prize in the competition held by the French Union of Musical Performers, which opened the doors for her to train with performers such as Elisabeth Fontan-Binoche, Marie-Pierre Langlamet and Xavier de Maistre. She graduated in Australia under the tutelage of Alice Giles. She formed part of the Seven Harp Ensemble, with seven other harpists with whom she put out the album Bolmimerie and went on tour. She later studied at the Computer Music Center and in Columbia University’s Graduate Department of Composition, having earned the Arts Initiative Award granted by the Gatsby Foundation.

Madrid. Tuesday April 27, 7:00 p.m. Tickets: 7 euros: general tickets at the box office. 6 euros if purchased online. Tickets sold on this website up to the day of the event at 2:00 p.m., or until sold out. Those tickets not sold online in advance will be put on sale one hour before the event at the door of the Casa Árabe Auditorium (payment by cash or credit card) for the price of 7 euros (6 euros for the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders. You must demonstrate your status with the proper document in order to receive the discount). Assigned seating with tickets.

Córdoba. Wednesday April 28, 6 p.m.. Book your tickets here.