Saied Silbak and Fred Thomas gig
Extraordinarily talented classically trained musicians Saied Silbak ( Oud) and Fred Thomas ( percussion and keyboard) combining in a rare collaboration, playing music from the Turkish, Arabic, Indian to Western traditions. Unique and not to missed.
Saied Silbak is a Palestinian composer and oud player born in Shafaa`mr, a city located in the lower Galilee of occupied Palestine. He began training in classical piano at the age of four, before moving onto the oud in his early teens in order to delve deep into the nuances at the base of Arabic music.
Silbak went on to train at the Beit Almusica Conservatoire where he later taught, before studying Music and Psychology at the university of Haifa and then completing his Masters at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where he is currently based.
He has a unique understanding of different types of music, from Arabic, Turkish and Indian to classical Western styles. Silbak’s signature sound, created through his artful ability to fuse these styles together, has seen him perform around the world at festivals and concert series in the UK, Belgium, France, Palestine, Morocco, Argentina and beyond.
“A boundary-blurring composer and improviser” – Gramophone Magazine
Fred Thomas is an ECM artist and one of London’s most sought after multi-instrumentalists and composer/arranger/producers, known for his breadth of musical styles as well as for specialising in creative re-interpretations of J.S. Bach. Thomas’s first appearance on ECM Records came in 2020 as pianist/drummer on Elina Duni’s “Lost Ships”, together with Rob Luft and Mathieu Michel. His subsequent ECM album and debut as leader comes on the New Series label with “Three or One”, 24 pieces by Bach transcribed for trio and solo piano by Thomas himself, featuring cellist Lucy Railton and violinist Aisha Orazbayeva, released in October 2021.
Thomas has collaborated with a huge variety of artists worldwide including Brian Eno, Yo-Yo Ma, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Jordi Savall, Meredith Monk, Jarvis Cocker, Jeanne Added, Rachel Podger, Elizabeth Kenny, Ethan Iverson, Larry Grenadier, Kees Boeke, Jill Feldman, Benoît Delbecq, Kit Downes, Tamara Stefanovich, Leo Abrahams, Kadialy Kouyate and Olivia Chaney. He has released a large discography of albums across various genres, particularly classical and jazz, and is published by Spartan Press and Edition Wilhelm Hansen.
