The New York Oud Festival is a multi-day, multi-venue music festival that displays the oud and its versatility as it exists in New York's diverse musical culture. The NYOF celebrates the oud and its wide-ranging influence on global music culture, showcasing artists from a multitude of traditions and contexts, and demonstrating why the oud continues to be one of the world's most beloved instruments.

Mavrothi Kontanis, Maurice Chedid

Doors: 7:30

Day 4 of the festival will feature sets by oudists Mavrothi Kontanis and Maurice Chedid. Seating is limited so first-come first-serve!

Mavrothi Kontanis is an eternal student of music on a range of instruments and voice, focused especially on the older music of Greece and the Near East. Based in the US but with roots in Halkidiki, Greece, he is known better as a singer in some circles or a teacher in others, but feels most at home crafting a melody with an oud in his hands. By keeping an open mind and drawing from his diverse experiences as both a Greek and an American, Mavrothi performs and creates music that is both Eastern and Western - old and new.
For this concert Mavrothi has selected original compositions, Greek folk tunes, and Ottoman works that offer a range of musical flavors and rich opportunities for expression and improvisation on the oud.

Maurice Chedid, a native of Beirut, grew up in a musical family: his father was a highly esteemed cantor in the Maronite Church in Lebanon, and his sister, a renowned vocalist. He honed his oud playing at the Lebanese Conservatory of Middle Eastern Music, studying oud playing, singing and the traditional Muwashshahat. He has been a frequent headliner in Arabic nightclubs, and has performed in many prestigious venues, including the United Nations, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall, as well as many music and cultural festivals throughout Europe such as the Royal Opera Theater in Denmark. A prolific composer, he has composed and recorded many songs and dance compositions as well as the original musical score for the story-theater production of Banat el Emir or The Dancing Princesses.

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