Ahl al Thara, violinist-composer Layale Chaker’s new work-in-progress project, is rooted in song as inheritance and as offering. Drawing from melodies and recitations passed down through her mother and elders, alongside reimagined songs from South Lebanon and Galilee, Layale weaves an intimate songbook of remembrance, tenderness and return, received, reshaped in the present and offered onward. Moving fluidly through jazz, Arabic maqam, contemporary classical textures, and polyphonic improvisational lineages, the work inhabits traditions that remain vibrant, shifting, and alive. New soundscapes celebrate the gifts by those who came before, carried forward as living testimony.

At its heart, the project reflects song’s enduring role in collective awakening. Music as the force that continues to accompany every revolution yet to come. This first reading unveils the project in its preliminary stages.

With Ryan al Solh (guitar) and Carmen Quill (bass)

Second set:

Hailed as a “virtuoso, intensely soulful" by the New York Times, the Syrian-born, Brooklyn-based genre-bending composer and clarinetist Kinan Azmeh will by joined by his longtime collaborator, guitarist-composer Kyle Sanna and surprise guests.