Concert: The Fragrant Garden: from al-Andalus to the Sephardi Mediterranean
About this Event
Through songs passed down across generations, the performance explores themes of memory, migration and belonging, revealing a rich cultural heritage shaped by centuries of coexistence.
Led by acclaimed performer and researcher Dr Vanessa Paloma Elbaz. Featuring Mohammed Farsi Alaoui on violin and Abdelilah Benkirane on percussion.
About Dr Vanessa Paloma Elbaz
Vanessa Paloma Elbaz is an ethnomusicologist, performer and scholar whose work explores the cultural histories of sound across the Sephardi diaspora following the 1492 expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula. Combining ethnography, historical musicology and sound studies, her research examines how music, language and oral traditions shape memory, identity and belonging across the Mediterranean, with particular attention to Jewish-Muslim cultural encounters, gender and migration. In 2013, she founded KHOYA: Les Archives Sonores du Maroc Juif, an archive dedicated to preserving and sharing the musical and audiovisual heritage of Morocco's Jewish communities. She has held numerous prestigious research fellowships, including a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship for her project on Judeo-Spanish songbooks as technologies of cultural transmission.
Dr Elbaz is Chair of the Mediterranean Music Studies Group of the International Council for Traditional Music and Dance (ICTMD) and serves on the boards of several international organisations dedicated to Jewish, Mediterranean and intercultural studies. Her current publications include a forthcoming monograph on women's song traditions in Sephardi Morocco and a co-edited volume on music, sound and memory in the Western Mediterranean, commissioned by the British Academy and Oxford University Press. Described by The New York Times as "a kind of one-woman roving museum of her own," Dr Elbaz's work has been featured by the BBC, The New York Times, Al Jazeera, France 24, NPR and other international media. Alongside her academic career, she is an internationally acclaimed performer of Sephardi musical traditions.
About Mohammed Farsi
Mohammed Farsi is a violinist born in Meknes, Morocco, and a graduate of the National Conservatory of Music in Rabat. He is the conductor of the Mayazine Andalusian Orchestra, based in Paris, and a former teacher of Andalusian music at the National Conservatory of Music in Meknes. His musical journey began at the age of 12, when he became a student of the renowned master Abderrahim El Khomsi. With 44 years of artistic experience, he was awarded an honorary prize for Andalusian music in 1996. Throughout his career, he has participated in numerous international tours and gained extensive experience in both performance and music education, working across Europe, the United States, Canada, Israel and Asia.
About Abdelali Benkirane
Abdelali Benkirane is a master of traditional Moroccan percussion, specialising in the tar and darbouka, as well as Moroccan Arab-Andalusian music. Born in Marrakech, he trained under renowned master Moulay Abdallah El Ouazzani at the Marrakech Conservatory before continuing his musical studies in Casablanca. Since beginning his professional career in 1988, he has performed at concerts and festivals across Morocco and internationally, accompanying leading figures in Andalusian music. His recent performances include appearances in France and Belgium in 2024, with the Takht Attourath in Paris in 2025, and at a festival of Andalusian music in 2026. Through the tar and darbouka, Benkirane brings rhythm, emotion and a deep connection to Morocco’s musical heritage, helping to keep its traditions alive across generations.
Open for all, regardless of faith.
About The Cambridge Festival of Islamic Arts
The Cambridge Festival of Islamic Arts runs from 19 to 29 November 2026, bringing performances, exhibitions, lectures, and workshops to Cambridge's historic colleges, museums, and cultural spaces. Open to everyone, the festival celebrates the beauty and diversity of Islamic arts, and, fifty years on from the landmark 1976 World of Islam Festival, carries that spirit into our own time. Find out more at cfia.co.uk.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 6.13 to GBP 13.70
