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Traquen’Art and the Suoni per il Popolo Festival present an exceptional event as part of the Contemporary Music Meetings series: a double program featuring two groundbreaking creations on the international scene. On stage: RU’YA – feat Ghalia Benali, the new project by Canadian guitarist and oud player Gordon Grdina, and Epigraphs, the latest exploration by American composer and percussionist John Hollenbeck.

Gordon Grdina’s RU’YA – رؤيا – feat Ghalia Benali – a musical vision without borders

A true world premiere, RU’YA—“foresight” or “vision” in Arabic—brings together six artists from diverse musical traditions and continents: the spellbinding voice of Ghalia Benali (Belgium/Tunisia), the luminous piano of Elias Stemeseder (Austria), the sensitive violin of Eylem Basaldi (Turkey/USA), the Persian percussion of Hamin Honari (Canada), the inventive rhythms of drummer Christian Lillinger (Germany), and the oud/guitar of Gordon Grdina (Canada), the project’s initiator and composer.

The result of 20 years of musical exploration beginning with Think Like the Waves—Grdina’s debut album—RU’YA weaves connections between avant-garde jazz, Arabic maqam, and Persian classical music. Inspired by the poetic vision of Ghalia Benali, the work celebrates poets as witnesses of human history, transforming memory, longing, and wounds into a universal language. This project transcends borders to create a vibrant space for dialogue between cultures and eras.

Epigraphs – music as a living palimpsest

Opening the evening, John Hollenbeck presents Epigraphs, a suite of pieces that reinvent themselves in real time. Inspired by the overpainting technique in visual arts, the composer layers new ideas over existing material. Although notated, the music is performed without rehearsal, allowing the musicians—Jeanne Laforest (voice), Sarah Rossy (voice), Roman Munoz (guitar), and Hollenbeck himself—to discover the work alongside the audience, in a fertile tension between movement and suspension.

An evening not to be missed

This double program combines cosmopolitan vision and creative freedom, offering a unique experience where contemporary improvisation, poetry, and world traditions converge. A rare opportunity to witness, in a single evening, two major artistic statements that redefine the boundaries of contemporary music.