By Ziad Nawfal

Moments before she climbed the stage of Beit el Shamsi for the second rehearsal of her performance My Heart Tells Me, I asked Noma Omran how she went about preparing this musical tribute to filmmaker Omar Amiralay. The Syrian documentary-maker, who was noted for the strong political criticism of his films, and played a prominent role in the events of the Damascus Spring of 2000, died on 5 February 2011 from heart failure. Omran was a close friend of Amiralay’s, and modified her contribution to Score for a Biennial (Sharjah Biennial 10’s curated music section) to turn it into a tribute to her departed friend. “There are no easy ways,” she said. “No easy ways to approach this work, this type of performance. It is too personal, too great a loss. I do not know whether I have adopted any particular method. It was mostly a matter of intuition. I would say that the overall feel is one of irony. Omar was fond of irony. His life and work were built around it.”

Noma Omran’s present band includes Omar Harb on bass, Nareg Abajian on piano, Dani Shukri on drums, and Ali Shaker on bozok. But it is Omran’s voice that caught my attention, or rather captivated it entirely. Over the course of the rehearsal, I heard it alternate between spells of chanting, shouting, operatic singing and playful whispering. The performance starts with the soprano singer mumbling and singing in a low voice over a bed of her own looped vocal samples, while her band remains silent. It is a fascinating moment, which puts in perspective Omran’s desire and tendencies to experiment within the parameters of her established genre, and provides insight into widely interesting future directions. It almost made me wish that the entirely of the performance was similar to this moment, and consisted solely of her voice, with no musical adornments.

Noma Omran’s performance My Heart Tells Me is scheduled for Thursday 17 March at 8.30pm, on the stage of Beit el Shamsi.