Faris Ishaq – Jasad: Music for Middle Eastern Flute – Live Review – Sheffield Crucible Playhouse
By Clare Jenkins, March 2026
On the night the US and Israel attacked Iran, killing its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a very different Middle East was being celebrated at Sheffield Crucible Playhouse. A Middle East not so much of conflict as of consolation and collaboration between humans, nature and music.
Composer and musician Faris Ishaq is a master of the nay, one of the oldest types of flute surviving today, dating back over 5,000 years. Ishaq, who was born in a small town “from where the shepherds used to follow the star to Bethlehem”, as he told the audience, discovered the instrument as a schoolboy, 20-odd years ago.
In this intimate solo recital, he offered a perfect illustration of how war doesn’t need to define a nation. The Palestine he and his flute create is a landscape of desert, rocky hillsides, olive groves, wild thyme, skylarks, cuckoos, and shepherds with their flocks, their flutes and their improvised music. The result is a soulful meditation on identity, home and heritage, and a quietly powerful and dignified act of cultural storytelling, both poignant and, at times, playful.
image: Jenny Davies
“Bridge between countries”
Jasad is Arabic for body, and – in addition to the flute – Ishaq uses whistling, whispering, tongue flicking and other percussive noises to depict birds and animals, water and wind. Ankle bells and a foot-operated frame drum “allow a natural flow of breath and foot”, as well as adding dynamic beats to the mix.
“In the tradition of playing the Nay,” he writes on his website, “mastering the art of breathing is an intimate process. To cultivate and develop a resonant sound, the player must embrace natural breathing, letting go of any mental barriers that attempt to control the flow of inhaling and exhaling… Ultimately, the breathing and the breather must become one.”
The overall effect of this in action is both meditative and absorbing. While the basis of the performance is proudly Palestinian, the music forms a bridge between countries and cultures thousands of miles apart, worlds ancient and modern, deep-rooted and experimental, personal and universal.
At times, the sound is lonely, plaintive, echoing. At others, it’s multi-layered and earthy, its rhythms based on such Palestinian techniques as the folk traditions of Tashbib and Dabke, the communal line dancing associated with weddings and harvestings, “connecting us to the land and soil”.
“Celebration”
A graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he studied global jazz, Ishaq at times blends in elements of contemporary jazz, notably in his tribute to jazz saxophonist John Coltrane’s reworking of ‘My Favourite Things’ from The Sound of Music.
‘My Fragmented Things’ “came out of the madness in the world over the last two years,” he explained. “The scattering of people and things, the core of our resilience in facing erasure of Palestinian culture and identity. The power of music is still valid because, when you see the massacres, you want to stop the music and the dances. But we believe in the power of music and of dance, and I want to share part of my music and heritage.”
And he does so masterfully and movingly. His final song – accompanied by the enthusiastic audience’s rhythmic clapping – expressed a woman’s love for her man, begging him not to forget her, his farm, his land and homeland. Here as throughout the concert, Ishaq paid tribute to the heritage of the nay while placing the instrument very much in a modern setting. Overall, a compelling celebration of Palestinian heritage as a living, breathing force.
More info: farisishaq.com/tour
Clare’s dream is to live in a hotel suite, safe from the bother of boiler breakdowns and crashing computers. Thanks to her husband Stephen McClarence’s work as a national newspaper travel writer, she’s been lucky enough to stay at hotels across the UK, India and many other countries – and has loved (nearly) every minute. As a journalist herself, she was a regular contributor to Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour for over 20 years and has made features and documentaries for Radios 3 and 4. She’s also a former theatre reviewer for The Stage magazine and, with her husband, co-author of Teatime at Peggy’s: A Glimpse of Anglo-India.
