Qeshm ––COMING SOON––
Rite of Strings featuring Ismail Lumanovski
Proudly Presents
RITE OF STRINGS
in
QESHM
featuring Ismail Lumanovski
Composed and arranged by Ehsan Matoori
WORLD PREMIERE
Thursday, August 6, 2026 - 11AM
Eylem Basaldi: Violin
Ehsan Matoori: Santoor
Ismail Lumanovski: Clarinet
Edward Perez: Bass
Engin Kaan Günaydın: Drums
Qeshm is inspired by Qeshm Island, the largest island in the Persian Gulf, where dramatic canyons, rugged coastlines, mangrove forests, and centuries of maritime culture have shaped a landscape unlike anywhere else in the region. Situated at the crossroads of trade and tradition, Qeshm has long been a place where nature, history, and diverse cultures meet.
For composer Ehsan Matoori, the island became the setting for an imagined journey. He envisioned himself riding a bicycle through its winding roads, taking in its breathtaking landscapes and hidden corners, until the horizon seemed to dissolve into the sea and sky. In that moment, Qeshm felt like a place where one could simply keep riding—so free that the bicycle might leave the earth and drift into the open air. That feeling of wonder, movement, and limitless possibility became the emotional foundation of the piece.
Blending the rhythmic spirit of southern Iran with contemporary improvisation, Qeshm is both a tribute to the island and a celebration of the freedom to imagine what lies beyond the horizon.
Download the debut album by RITE OF STRINGS now
About RITE OF STRINGS
Rite of Strings is a contemporary global music ensemble co-directed by Iranian santoor player and composer Ehsan Matoori and Grammy Award-winning bassist and composer Edward Perez, alongside violinist and composer Eylem Basaldi and Grammy Award-winning drummer and composer Engin Kaan Günaydın.
Built around the unusual combination of santoor, violin, bass, and drums, the music explores memory, migration, longing, and light through original compositions and deeply personal arrangements. Moving fluidly across Persian, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, beyond-jazz, and contemporary chamber traditions, Rite of Strings develops a shared musical language that is intimate, cinematic, and rhythmically dynamic—rooted in the individual musical histories of its members while remaining open to dialogue, experimentation, and transformation.
Rite of Strings recorded its debut album, Dust and the Moon, on May 13 and 14, 2026, at Pinch Recording Studio in New York City. The full album will be released by Bright Shiny Things on August 28, 2026. Following the release of its debut album, Rite of Strings presents music that feels both ancient and new: rooted in tradition, but shaped by the language of today.
About Ehsan Matoori
Ehsan Matoori is an Iranian-American composer, santoor player, producer, and interdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. A 2023 New Music USA Creator Fund awardee, he creates work that brings Iranian musical traditions into dialogue with jazz, contemporary classical music, improvisation, storytelling, movement, and visual art. His major projects include Voices Unveiled, Fountain of Eternity, A Place to Breathe, and Rite of Strings, which he co-directs with Grammy Award-winning bassist and composer Edward Perez. Presented across the United States, Canada, and Europe, Matoori’s work explores memory, migration, identity, resilience, and cultural connection.
About Eylem Basaldi
Eylem Basaldi is a Turkish-born violinist, composer, and educator whose work bridges classical training with the folk traditions of Western Asia, North Africa, the Balkans, and beyond. Classically trained at the New England Conservatory, she brings a deep, improvisational sensibility to every project she touches.
Basaldi’s current work includes Laura Elkeslassy’s Ya Ghorbati: Divas in Exile; Gordon Grdina’s Ru’ya with Ghalia Benali; Rite of Strings; a makam-based collaboration with Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch, featuring Mona Miari; Dolunay, a band she co-founded dedicated to Rumeli music; Sandaraa, featuring Zeb Bangash; and Hamed Sinno’s Poems of Consumption. She also collaborates regularly with the Turkish American Orchestra and director Andrea Assaf of Art2Action.
She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and Pierre Boulez Saal, as well as on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. She has shared stages with artists including Snarky Puppy, Dave Brubeck, and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. Praised for her “haunting and brilliant” sound by Lucid Culture, Basaldi is known for the depth she brings to every project, drawing on her Turkish roots, classical training, and ability to translate the human voice through the violin.
About Engin Kaan Günaydın
Engin Kaan Günaydın is a Grammy Award-winning drummer and percussionist based in New York City and a member of NY Gypsy All Stars. His playing is recognized for its musicality, versatility, and strong rhythmic voice across a wide range of genres. He has performed with Al Di Meola, Ibrahim Maalouf, and Arooj Aftab, and earned a Grammy Award for his performance on a Grammy-winning album by Residente.
About Ismail Lumanovski
Ismail Lumanovski is an internationally acclaimed clarinetist known for his passionate sound, fearless virtuosity, and remarkable ability to move between classical music, improvisation, and the musical traditions of the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean. A graduate of The Juilliard School, he has performed at major venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Salle Pleyel, Beijing Concert Hall, and the Emirates Palace. He has collaborated with artists and ensembles including Pierre Boulez, Al Di Meola, Marcel Khalife, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and the New Juilliard Ensemble.
About Edward Perez
Grammy Award-winning bassist and seven-time Grammy nominee Edward Perez is a composer, arranger, and bandleader whose musical life has unfolded as a journey across cultures and genres. Based in Queens, New York, he moves fluidly between jazz, Latin music, and global traditions, bringing a composer’s inventiveness and a bassist’s rhythmic drive to every project.
Perez began in the jazz clubs of Boston while studying mathematics at Harvard University, but quickly expanded into Latin jazz and the folkloric styles of South America. A formative two-year stay in Lima deepened his connection to the region’s musical languages and set the stage for a career defined by stylistic exploration. Establishing his residence in New York in 2005, he began touring with jazz artists including Lee Konitz, Seamus Blake, Paquito D’Rivera, Ignacio Berroa, and Elio Villafranca.
As his horizons expanded, he collaborated with musical luminaries from a remarkable variety of genres, including Yo-Yo Ma, celebrated Afro-Peruvian singer Eva Ayllón, Colombian singer Lucía Pulido, Galician gaita artist Cristina Pato, flamenco artist Diego Amador, and Lebanese oud virtuoso Marcel Khalife.
As a composer, Perez’s works have been performed at venues including David Geffen Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, El Gran Teatro Nacional del Perú, Damascus Opera House, and Boston Symphony Hall.
Perez co-leads the Grammy-nominated Terraza Big Band and won his first Grammy Award for the genre-blending project Passion for Bach and Coltrane with Imani Winds. Still rooted in jazz improvisation, he remains perpetually on the lookout for his next inspiring collaboration.
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