Parallel Reality: Rite for Strings

A ritual of resonance, a meeting between worlds.

In Parallel Reality: Rite for Strings, composer and musician Emine Bostancı brings together five traditional string instruments from different musical worlds — the Kemenche from Istanbul, the Persian Kamancheh, the Cretan Lyra, the Kazakh Kobyz, and the Chinese Erhu — with a European string trio, polyphonic singing, and percussion.

The performance is inspired by the Mevlevi Sufi rites, in which movement and repetition lead to ecstatic stillness. Bostancı reimagines this ancient form as a contemporary sound ritual in which tradition, memory, and imagination meet. The music unfolds as a journey through layered realities — from meditative silence to pulsating rhythms, from inner reflection to collective rapture.

In this interplay of voices and strings, new resonances arise that transcend time, place, and identity. Parallel Reality: Rite for Strings is an ode to connection — between people, instruments, cultures, and times. An invitation to listen to what vibrates between worlds.

Fuensanta - Double Bass, Vocal
Sanem Kalfa - Cello, Vocal
Emine Bostanci - Kemenche of Istanbul, Cretan lyra, Vocal
Saba Alizadeh - Persian Kamancheh
Zheng Sun - Chinese Erhu
Jan-Bas Bollen- HyperTheremin
Sasha Witteveen - Double Bass
Vinsent Planjer - Percussion set