Presented by Intercultural Journeys

Virtuoso oud prodigy Mohamed Abozekry convenes Egypt’s popular and classical music traditions, Sufi calls, and secular poetry with a new instrumental project, Karkadé.

With Karkadé, Abozekry evokes the hibiscus tea found everywhere in Cairo, and the eponymous French café, at which this project was born. Mixing together styles and traditions, Abozekry creates a musical language, describing a path to an Arab world at peace with its history and turned towards the future. The Karkadé ensemble features Abozekry (oud), as well as performers on flute, percussion, and violin. 

An oud master still in his mid-twenties, Abozerky’s ambitions—to musically interpret the world around him and de-exoticize his instrument—mark him as a polymath of forms. “I never move backwards, but in a circular motion and return to the place I started with more experience.”