Osnabrück, 22^nd December 2020 – The “Society of Friends of the Morgenland Festival Osnabrück” has commissioned seven compositions by musicians from various countries. This has been made possible by private members’ donations and further funding by the non-profit organisation, as well as via the support of the Stiftung Niedersachsen, the Tourist Office of the City and Region of Osnabrück, terre des hommes and the Sparkasse Osnabrück. The compositions are to be premiered by the Morgenland All Star Band during the 2022 Morgenland Festival. The artists, who all have close connections with the Festival, have each received a commission valued at €2000: Jalgasbek Iles (Kazakhstan), Dima Orsho (Syria/USA), Merima Ključo (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Moslem Rahal (Syria/Spain), Yasamin Shahhosseini (Iran), Salman Gambarov (Azerbaijan) and Ibrahim Keivo (Syria/Germany).

Because to its sponsors, and as one of only a handful of festivals, the Morgenland Festival Osnabrück was able to pay all its musicians in full during the Corona-stricken year 2020. Last summer their musical contributions were broadcast in an Online Edition of the Festival. Now the Friends of the Festival have gone one step further and, according to its chairman Prof. Dr. Karlheinz Altendorf, they are pursuing three important goals: “For many musicians commissions are the only source of income at the moment. However, musicians from those regions which are presented at the Festival seldom receive such commissions. Together with other generous sponsors, our Society supports selected musicians from these areas at this difficult time. Their compositions will, however, also enrich us – the Osnabrück audience – and, more importantly, will also extend the repertoire of composed ‘oriental music’, which is, at the moment, rather small.