The Arabesque Music Ensemble and guest artists will perform "The Songs of Sheikh Sayyed Darweesh: Soul of a People" for the Festival du Monde Arabe de Montréal on Saturday, November 11 at 8:00 p.m.

Presented under the patronage of Ambassador Wafaa El Hadidy and produced by the Arabesque Foundation for Arab Culture, the concert, entitled Symphonies du Nil, will be held at Théâtre Maisonneuve, Place des Arts.

Members of the AME are Hicham Chami, Hanna Khoury, Kareem Roustom, Albert Agha, and Christopher Ahn. Guest artists for this concert are Youssef Kassab and Michel Merhej.

The AME toured the Sayyed Darweesh production in seven U.S. cities earlier this year and recently presented the concert at Bowdoin College in Maine.

Don Heckman of the Los Angeles Times hailed the AME's "considerable musical versatility, alternating lush ensemble playing with bursts of individual improvisation." Peter Margasak of the Chicago Reader wrote, "This group brings a historical authenticity to the material and plays it with crackling precision." From Philippa Kiraly of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "The whole was fascinating, the performance polished."

Tickets for the performance are $29-$49 and may be reserved through Place des Arts, 514-842-2112; www.pda.qc.ca.

Further information, including video clips, is at:
www.festivalarabe.com/fma/catalog.jsp.

The Arabesque Foundation may be reached at 773-856-6454.