Mavericks: Seeing without seeing

How do you see the world without looking?
How does silence sound when it begins to speak?

In this new programme from the Mavericks series, the New European Ensemble brings together three remarkable voices — each exploring perception, imagination, and inner freedom in their own way.

Kurdish-Dutch composer Hawar Tawfiq has written a new work about blindness — not as a limitation, but as an invitation to listen more deeply. His music moves between sound and silence, between what is heard and what can only be sensed.

Clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh, the featured artist in this programme, is a boundary-defying musical personality. Known for his collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble and orchestras around the world, he merges improvisation and composition into an intense, deeply personal musical language — virtuosic yet heartfelt, always driven by communication and human expression.

The poetry collections curated by Ahmed Aboutaleb form the reflective counterpart of the evening. In his own poems and translations, he explores themes of identity, responsibility, and human dignity. His language is clear and direct, yet layered and contemplative. In this context, his poetry invites new ways of seeing and understanding — precisely what Seeing Without Seeing is about.

Mavericks is the New European Ensemble’s platform for visionary voices that question conventions and place the act of listening at the centre. Seeing Without Seeing invites the audience to hear differently, to feel differently — beyond borders, beyond sight, in the space where imagination begins.