Sarband Ensemble

Allgemeine Informationen

Ensemble Sarband / Artistic Director: Vladimir Ivanoff

Musical director Dr. Vladimir Ivanoff, who founded
Sarband in 1988, connects cultures, people and
epochs, both as a scholar and a musician:
His programs unite musicians from widely different
cultures and musical backgrounds and mediate
between past and present, Early Music
and living traditions.

«Sarband» means connection: In Mid-Eastern music theory, this term signifies a link between two compositions within a musical suite. Ensemble Sarband invites most diverse audiences as well as most diverse performers «to come together»; it «binds» them to cultural experiences previously perceived as alien.

The cooperation in the ensemble is not a fashionable crossover, but conceived as a continuous dialogue on equal terms. All the artists unrestrictedly contribute their native traditions, their personal histories and their own creativity to the programs, so that Sarband also becomes a musical training ground for communication and tolerance between different cultural identities.

While today the religious, economic, cultural and political differences between Orient and Occident
are inthe focus of public attention, Sarband endeavor to show that music has always been not mere decoration, but an enlightened means of mutual respect and can even today be an example for understanding and acceptance, a model of peace.Possible peaceful relations between Orient and Occident, between religions, have become commonplace in recent cultural activities.
Many projects worldwide try to convey the message that Orient and Occident belong together, that different religions can communicate, but - like worldwide politics - they don't show how these goals can be achieved.

With their programs, Sarband in contrast demonstrate the importance of the past for the future: history proves that religious, cultural, political conflicts have indeed been solved successfully, but always through personal devotion of human beings to their personal beliefs and their tolerance towards the diversity of human beings.