The Chicago Immigrant Orchestra returns this Sunday with a new vision under the direction of Fareed Haque and Wanees Zarour as a 12-piece ensemble of musicians from Chicago’s diverse immigrant community and representing music traditions from all over the world. Artists including Sophia Uddin (violin), Fareed Haque (guitar, keys, percussion), Hitesh Master (North Indian vocals), Juan Pastor (Latin percussion), Paul Cotton (African percussion), Richard Christian (tabla/dhol), Sam Tahiri (Persian vocals), Saraswathi Ranganathan (South Indian veena), Tamir Hargana (throat singer / horsehair fiddle), Tzu-Tzen Wu (Chinese ruan) Ugochi (Nigerian vocals), and Wanees Zarour (oud, buzuq, percussion).
Produced by the City of Chicago, World Music Festival Chicago has attracted over 650,000 concertgoers to see more than 750 artists and ensembles from over 80 countries since it began in 1999. The 2020 presentation will move online as part of Global Music Month 2020 – an online festival joining 19 different U.S. and Canadian festivals and presenters under one banner for a month-long celebration of international music, August 29-October 1.