Oudmigrations launch concert

We are marking the opening of Oudmigrations with a concert at one of London’s most beautiful private concert salons, Music at 22 Mansfield Street. Please join us to hear the oud in multiple combinations and repertories, and enjoy this breath-taking Adam style house while you listen. 13 April 2016, 19.30 (welcome drinks served from 19.00)….

The journeys of ouds

We think the oldest surviving ouds are in Europe, preserved as a result of French, Belgian and English research and collecting. Their journeys shadow the routes of imperialist acquisition. But ouds have long been associated with journeys. And as time moves on towards the end of the 19th century, others ouds reveal the travels of musicians…

Cairo to London, 1867

By Rachel Beckles Willson England’s first oud arrived in 1867 thanks to some obscure international diplomacy involving Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt. The French state mounted its second Exposition Universelle in Paris that year, and it involved not only massive displays of French industry, but also exhibits from other nations. Many of these presented…