NO COVER 4:30pm Show
Hop on a transcultural caravan with Robert Lehmann (piano/keys) and Jordan Sarkis (oud/nay/clarinet) weaving traditional Arabic classics into Suwal Singh’s lilting cadence on tabla/darbuka, offering an intimate and genre-blending experience.
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Robert Lehmann is a mixed-Filipino musician with significant experience in Arabic darbuka. His work focuses on re-examining his Western classical background through a new lens of improvised music and electronic synthesis. He gathers disparate influences across minimalism and classical, electronica and ambient, and jazz and film scores, particularly drawing on Romantic and Impressionist eras as well as Arabic music. Lehmann plays keys with several premier Twin Cities groups, including Obi Original (Nigerian Afrorock), MajMin (instrumental), Fanaka Nation (Kenyan Afrobeats/hip-hop), the Umamies (Asian-American pop), Yalla Drum (Arabic drumming group), and The Arab Band (Arabic chamber ensemble).
Jordan Sarkis is a multi-instrumentalist from Fuheis, Jordan. His primary instrument is the nay (Middle Eastern flute), but he also plays the oud (Middle Eastern lute), the darbuka (Middle Eastern drum), and the clarinet. During his time at the University of Minnesota, Sarkis conceptualized The Arab Band with a team of Arabic music melophiles. He then led the ensemble to grow and perform across the Twin Cities, most recently at the Luminary Arts Center in Minneapolis.
Suwal Singh thrives in celebrating his musical heritage by exploring the nuances of tabla (South Asian percussion) with broad artistic collaborations in various sociocultural contexts, most recently as an instrumental duo with acclaimed guitarist/composer Dean Magraw. He has contributed to Minnesota music as part of SitarTabla (Hindustani classical), MoMoSauce (Nepali music), Yeti Steady (avant garde), Jest (pop-rock), and MajMin (world music). He has appeared at Jazz Central Studios, Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, Cedar Cultural Center, KFAI, Landmark Center, Dunsmore Jazz Room, and the Carnegie Arts Center.
