“It is a testament to the immense influence of Damascus in the Arab World that the Arabic nickname for the city, Al-Sham, is also the name for the whole Arabian Levant. The recent years of upheaval in Syria have been difficult for me to digest given the cultural and musical transformation that I underwent as a kid travelling through Damascus. Today, as The New York Times describes an entire lost generation in Syria, the need to musically respond is more desperate in me than ever. The sonic results of many of these thoughts are collected here in my first cello suite: Al-Sham.”
Mohammed Fairouz (2013)