Kuwaiti composer Adnan Marafi, 26, won the third prize in the Emerging Composers Competition, commissioned by the acclaimed clarinet and guitar duo Jâca and sponsored by Vandoren, and Potenza Music. The competition aims to create new, original works for clarinet and guitar, and featured over 20 submissions from promising young composers from seven countries on three different continents. Marafi’s winning submission, titled Arabesque, won him a guaranteed recording and premiere of the work from Jâca and a potential publishing deal with Potenza Music.
Marafi studied piano and violoncello in Kuwait’s College of Basic Education. A self-taught composer, his debut concert was in Kuwait last year and he recently won second place at the Golden Key Piano Composition Competition Festival in Vienna. This fall, Marafi will start studying at the Manhattan School of Music in New York to earn a Master of Music in Composition under Reiko Fueting.
Marafi’s goal is to write music and share his culture, adding to it through his own works and projects abroad, such as Jâca’s ECC. To bring focus to what Marafi says, has been “unfortunately neglected by people and even musicians from my country,” much of his music blends Western and Arabic musical traditions, specifically that of Khaleeji music, with the intent of publishing it and disseminating it to a wider public.
The 2021 competition theme was to write a work relating to the topic of ‘culture’. Marafi set out to write a piece inspired by Arabic architecture with a title familiar to listeners of Debussy: Arabesque. Marafi’s piece is heavily inspired by his “Arabic and generally Near-Eastern” heritage, incorporating elements from several regions much like arabesques do.
Speaking about his composition, Marafi said: “When looking at an Arabesque design, often we are overwhelmed by the amount of detail and the apparent randomness of it. After looking at it for a while, we start to notice patterns and it becomes clearer. Traditionally, Arabesque designs would incorporate well-known Arabic words or phrases. Usually from poetry, parables, holy texts, among others. Over the centuries, artists were getting ever more witty with their Arabesque designs and how they incorporate words and elements that are relevant to their contemporaneous times with their art.”
For their part, Jâca stated they selected the composition for the prize as they loved the piece: “Arabesque is a unique piece of music that explores a variety of interesting sounds and combines the clarinet and guitar in beautiful complexity that unfolds throughout the piece, all done through the lens of the composer’s home culture. We are thrilled to be performing and recording the work!”
[Jâca is a Los Angeles based duo ensemble that reaches beyond the bounds of classical music. Comprising clarinetist Wesley Ferreira and guitarist Jaxon Williams, their virtuosic and engaging concerts stimulate emotion, inspire imagination, and promote multicultural understanding and appreciation. Vandoren is a renowned French musical accessories manufacturer. Potenza Music is a music publishing and online musical accessories retailer in the United States.]
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