“It’s a perfect analogy of the idea of celebrating everyone’s differences and individuality,” Grdina says. “But then also when you look back in a certain way, you can see the beauty of all of those things together.”

First commissioned for Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal, Ru’ya –
before its Vancouver debut – now reaches Canadian audiences, with performances in Toronto and Montreal. Part of Capilano University’s Global Roots Series and Jazz Series, the concert is co-presented with New Old World Music Society and in partnership with Infidels Jazz.

A vision born

For Grdina, Ru’ya reflects his past two decades of working to create inclusive musical spaces –
including his propensity for collaboration. The musician takes great care in choosing his collaborators and tries to “write towards people’s strengths.”

Ru’ya’s ensemble features musicians from different cultural backgrounds, including pianist Elias Stemeseder (U.S.), violinist Eylem Basaldi (Türkiye/U.S.), percussionist Hamin Honari (Canada) and drummer Christian Lillinger (Germany).

“My goal when putting together the band is have one group that can do aspects of everything that I do,” Grdina adds.

A JUNO-award winning guitarist and oud player, he has spent twenty years exploring different musical traditions. These explorations – including composition ideas – set the stage for this ensemble.

“It’s people that have studied a lot of different types of music, and they’re not really suppressing or controlling how that music develops,” Grdina says of Ru’ya. “So, that when we’re playing, we can just say okay to everything in the moment because the music’s calling for it.”

Grdina sees Basaldi as an “accomplished, traditional Turkish maqam improviser.” The maqam is a system of melodies used when singing Arabic music.

The musician adds that the ensemble’s voice – Ghalia Benali (Belgium/Tunisia) – is another master of the maqam. Rather than deciding how Benali should sing, Grdina wrote the compositions to allow space for what “she wants to do, and can do or hears.”

“For a long time, I was wanting to find a vocalist who came out of the Arabic tradition. But was also very, very free and a great improviser; and open to trying new kinds of avenues of expression,” Grdina adds. “I found that in Benali.”

Global voices

Grdina shares that their collaboration felt like an “organic creation.” From the very first rehearsal, he was taken by Benali’s intuitive or natural approach to singing.

“Having her sing on top of [the music] really humanized everything that was happening,” he shares, adding Benali is also an expert in traditional and contemporary Arabic poetry.

A powerful moment came when they revisited one of Grdina’s older pieces called Gaza, written years ago with Honari and Kenton Loewen. When Grdina shared it with Benali, she immediately felt its resonance.

“She instantly goes, ‘I know exactly the poem for this song,’” he recalls, adding the poem came from a Palestinian poet. “That was a specific thing where the music told her exactly what poem needs to be [used] for this.”

For Grdina, the moment felt like it was “meant to be” – a representation of what Ru’ya is about.

The musician adds that Honari and Lillinger “play really well together.” Describing their connection as an “unlikely” one, Grdina describes how their musical togetherness “gels right away.” It was also through Lillinger that Grdina came to know of Stemeseder.

“The [piano] music is quite intense, and you need a certain type of player that can do it,” Grdina shares. “Stemeseder is great for that.”

Grdina would like to see this music open its listeners to new experiences and perspectives – recognizing how they “are all connected.”

“I hope that the music touches people in some way where they leave feeling more connected to their own creativity, their own inner voice or their own feelings of compassion,” he says.

For more information, see www.capilanou.ca/student-services/community/blueshore-financial-centre-for-the-performing-arts/our-events/all-events/events/gord-grdinas-ruya-.php