Amir ElSaffar New Quartet

Amir ElSaffar, trumpet * Tomas Fujiwara, drums

Tania Giannouli, microtonal piano * Ole Mathisen, tenor saxophone

Photo by Daniel Wetzel

Clarion Concerts, presenter of stellar chamber music concerts for many decades in the Hudson Valley/Berkshires,

steps into the ever-widening expanse of today's musical appetites with a concert on Sunday, 08 March 2026 at the Stissing Center. Appearing at 3pm that day will be the Amir ElSaffar New Quartet: Amir ElSaffar, trumpet; Ole Mathisen, tenor saxophone; Tania Giannouli, piano, and Tomas Fujiwara, drums.

WHAT: Clarion Concerts at The Stissing Center

WHO: Amir ElSaffar New Quartet

WHEN: Sunday 08 March 2026 at 3pm

WHERE: The Stissing Center / 2950 Church St. / Pine Plains NY 12567

TICKETS: 518-771-3339

**In advance: $30 parterre; $40 table seating

**At the door: $40 parterre; $50 table seating

**Adults age 30 and under who use the code UNDER30 on EventBrite will pay 50% of the otherwise applicable ticket price

**Those age 17 and under admitted free

Says Clarion's Artistic Director, violinist Melissa White, "More than five years ago, Clarion found a way to provide music to a community exhausted by the pandemic and confined to their homes - we streamed two of our concerts. One of these streams featured a performance by Amir ElSaffar and a group including the world's greatest singer of the Iraqi Maqam tradition, Hamid AlSaadi. To our surprise and delight, this streamed concert garnered the largest audience ever recorded for Clarion Concerts, and we were eager to bring Amir back. We're delighted to be presenting him once again, and this time in a totally new context, a jazz quartet!"

According to Chris Ingalls in PopMatters, "Amir ElSaffar’s New Quartet have pulled off the trick of creating something that moves and sounds like jazz, but with a much deeper resonance. By incorporating the microtonal tunings of Maqam, the musical parameters are widened considerably, resulting in a rich and rewarding experience."

Says Steve Hochman in SPIN Magazine: "For this Chicagoan, this is all part of a mission to introduce people to sounds that to them may seem new or different, without making them seem, well, foreign. 'It’s really important to me to bring these musical languages and traditions together in a way that makes sense in the moment,' [ElSaffar] says. 'You don’t have to have prior knowledge...the ear very quickly adjusts to those sounds.' "

American composer, trumpeter, santur player, vocalist, and bandleader Amir ElSaffar has been described in the New York Times as “the celebrated trumpeter and composer who explores vital connections between jazz and Arabic music.” A recipient of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and US Artist Fellowship, and Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University, ElSaffar has earned an international reputation for his work combining jazz and western classical music with the microtonal Maqam music of Iraq and the Middle East. His six piece Two Rivers ensemble and 17-piece Rivers of Sound orchestra, combining Western and Arabic instrumentation and musical languages, have released five critically acclaimed albums and have toured throughout the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East. The Amir ElSaffar Quartet performs ElSaffar’s microtonal compositions with standard jazz instrumentation. His ensemble Safaafir is the only ensemble in the US performing and preserving the Iraqi Maqam in its traditional format, and The Alwan Ensemble, the resident ensemble of Alwan for the Arts, specializes in classical music from Egypt, the Levant, and Iraq. Throughout his career, ElSaffar has also worked with jazz legends, such as Cecil Taylor and Archie Shepp, along with other prominent jazz musicians like Danilo Perez, Mark Dresser, Gerry Hemingway, Marc Ribot, Henry Grimes, and Oliver Lake.

Established in 1957, Clarion Concerts is dedicated to bringing world-class chamber music to the Hudson Valley of New York. Clarion seeks to expand the chamber music repertoire through the commissioning and performance of new works by contemporary composers. The non-profit organization has a specific commitment to presenting, commissioning, and fostering chamber music works by Black composers and showcasing Black musicians and seeks to promote the understanding and enjoyment of chamber music through educational and concert experiences for young people in the community.

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