A new partnership is taking shape between Sheikh Imam Cultural Club and Jamarabia, led by violinist and creative director Bassel Hariri. The collaboration sits within two of the Club's core strands: encouraging new musical and artistic responses to Sheikh Imam's legacy, and the Club's growing programme of concerts and themed musical evenings. Together with Jamarabia, the Club will seek to develop new interpretations of classic works from the Sheikh Imam repertoire that carry his songs into fresh musical language, and then bring these reworkings to the stage through co-produced live concerts and public performances. Rather than a single event, this is intended as an ongoing exchange, one where reimagined material and live performance feed into each other, giving Imam's songs room to be reinterpreted, performed, and heard anew by wider audiences.
Bassel Hariri is a Syrian violinist and the founder of Jamarabia, a London-based platform dedicated to Arab music, diaspora creativity, and collaborative live performance.
Through Jamarabia, Bassel works to bring Arab and diasporic musical projects to the stage for London's Arab, SWANA, jazz, and cross-cultural music audiences.
His work centres on building bridges between Arabic musical heritage and contemporary performance, positioning Jamarabia as a hub for migration, artistic renewal, and cross-cultural collaboration within London's diasporic music scenes.
Follow Bassel on Instagram
Click below to follow Jamarabia