Lourdes Pérez & May Nasr

The ability of music to travel under bombs and across barriers joins two great voices from the Arab and Latin American worlds. Join us for a beautiful and rare concert with Lebanon’s May Nasr and Puerto Rico’s Lourdes Pérez as we celebrate the release of their full length Spanish/Arabic duet album, Written in Water.

Based in Beirut, “the great voice from Lebanon” May Nasr has inspired a world-wide following with her plaintive voice and acoustic guitar. A voice for freedom, justice, equality, humanity and love, Nasr often focuses on the beauty of the Lebanese people in her music, using songs of peace, love and resilience to inspire positive change.  She has performed to ecstatic audiences throughout the Middle East and the world. Her first CD, Lil Ghaly, was released in November 2008.  Born into improvisational, musical traditions of Moca, Puerto Rico, musician, poet and composer Lourdes Perez is noted for combining both power and fragility within the same, rich contralto voice. She has performed internationally for over 20 years, from performing arts centers to areas of conflict, paying soulful tribute to the passion and hope at the common heart of human struggle. Perez has released eight albums, composed scores for theater, dance, and film and has performed duets with legendary artists such as Mercedes Sosa, Jane Siberry, Indigo Girls, and Guillermo Velázquez.

Considered musical icons and voices of peace in different worlds, oceans apart, this unlikely connection was sparked by the sounds one song during the bombing of Lebanon in 2006.  Lourdes’ Spanish version of “Ounadikum” (I Call To You) by Lebanese songwriter Ahmad Kaboor reached May and became a musical haven against the nightly sound of shelling in the streets.  A song about survival and resilience led to years of exchanging letters and ideas across the sea.   The two singer-songwriters met for the first time in New York where they began a journey of musical exploration that resulted in a duet on May’s debut DC, Lil Ghaly.  They met again in May 2009, in San Antonio, this time presenting a complete body of work in Spanish and Arabic together.  Since then, Nasr and Perez have performed to a passionate audience at Gibralfáro Castle in Málaga, Spain overlooking the Mediterranean sea of Andalucia.  And the song that originally brought them together continues to work its magic, as the song’s beloved, elder songwriter joined them in the studio recording for Written in Water.  Do not miss Nasr and Perez’ One World Theatre debut.  This is sure to be a spectacular evening of love, peace, and transcendence.