Experience Global Music: Bonn Stadtgarten Concert Highlights

A diverse musical ensemble performing on stage at the Bonn Stadtgarten concert, featuring a harp, percussion, and traditional instruments.

Music with a Global accent was the theme for this evening’s concert at Bonn Stadtgarten with FLIM opening the evening and Yalda Abbasi and Trio Sereng taking us through sundown .

For FLIM the Global tradition grew out of their use of traditional instruments to create a modern ‘sound carpet’. With harp, bass clarinet and Baglama (a turkish form of guitar) they created an enjoyable opening set of the evening. It was also refreshing to find a band that said “We have cd’s for you. Please take one and put what you think they are worth in the box”. A surprising approach for certain, but if you put in under ten Euros then you were really insulting a band with bright and imaginative tunes who really did make a perfect musical backdrop to the picnicking audience in front of the stage and the beergarden listeners behind it.

A female musician playing a dotar and singing while another female musician plays the violin during a concert performance, with sound equipment and chairs in the background.

Persian-Kurdish music carried us through part two of the evening courtesy of Yalda Abbasi and Trio Sereng. Yalda Abbasi was playing music at only four years of age under the tutelage of her mother – herself a highly regarded singer in Iran. This evening she was proud to present her mother as the singer on several Kurdish traditional songs. Which brings me to the second lesser known instrument of the day – a dotar. It’s an instrument with only two strings, which gives it romantic connotations as many players claim that one string is male and functions as the accord, while the other is female, playing the main melody.

Three female musicians performing at an outdoor concert, one playing a dotar, another singing, and the third playing a violin, with a backdrop of stage equipment.

Trio Sereng add a Jazz element to the traditional sound of the dotar and their clear enthusiasm for playing had the audience moving closer to the stage and gently swaying to the music after only a couple of songs. The trio are Kurdish/Armenian violinist Nure Dlovani, German/Turkish pianist Laia Genc and German jazz cellist Beate Wolff. They may look like gentle and unchallenging chamber musicians, but don’t let that fool you – these four ladies are out to prove two things – the beautiful side of Kurdish Culture and the self-determination of women. In front of another large audience watching the sun go down on the Rhine they proved themselves on both counts with ease.

Next Thursday and Friday (29/30 August) will be the last double nighter of this year’s extremely successful open-air season at Alter Zoll. arranged by Stadt Bonn. Friday night is themed as a ‘Bonn Cult-Punk’ evening so I’m expecting a lively send-off Musical guests will be Das Frivole Burgfräulein and Die Manfreds. If you want something a little gentler then Saturday might be up your street with International Ladies taking the spotlight: Ukranian Pop-Jazz with Laura Marti and French Psychadelic Pop Rock with Yzoula. Both evenings from 7 pm until 10 pm. Bring a blanket and a drink or two.