"[Broken Branches is] an eclectic album built on friendship which explores the performers’own sense of identity memory diaspora often in their own arrangements.”
The Guardian
"Shibe brings a lively charisma and a vibrant array of musical colour to [Broken Branches]…with Sean Shibe you can always expect the unexpected but there’s nothing frivolous about this boundary-pushing musician.”
BBC Music Magazine
MUSICAL EXPLORATION OF MIXED IDENTITIES
In his Hong Kong début American tenor Karim Sulayman and Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe present Broken Branches a conceptual recital that explores the cultural and musical ties between the East and the West. The programme ranges from Monteverdi and Purcell to Britten and Middle East folk songs exploring music that ties in with the artists’ mixed identity as they each grew up in the West (United States and Scotland) but with ethnic roots in the East (Lebanon and Japan).
The album “Broken Branches” was nominated for a 2024 Grammy award for the Best Classical Vocal Solo Album and has toured in the US to great acclaim.
Karim Sulayman has garnered international attention as a sophisticated and versatile artist winning a Grammy Award for Classical Solo Vocal in 2019. Guitarist Sean Shibe brings a fresh and innovative approach to both the electric and traditional classical guitar and has won two OPUS Klassik Awards (2021 & 2023) and two Gramophone Awards (2019 & 2021) for his originality and virtuosity. This is their first collaboration together.
Programme
PURCELL Music for a While
DOWLAND Praeludium
DOWLAND Fantasia
DOWLAND Time Stands Still
CACCINI Dalla porta d’oriente
MONTEVERDI Si dolce è’l tormento
MONTEVERDI La mia turca
TRADITIONAL La prima vez (arr. Sulayman & Shibe)
TRADITIONAL Lamma bada Yatathanna (arr. Shibe)
DARWISH El Helwa Di
RODRIGO/FAIRUZ Li Beirut
HARVEY Sufi Dance
CHAKER A butterfly in New York
TAKEMITSU In the woods: Wainscot pond
BRITTEN Songs from the Chinese
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Concert Hall, Hong Kong City Hall, 5 Edinburgh Place, Central, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
