Visitors to Singapore’s Esplanade arts center next weekend will have their choice of meditation, “mugham,” and everything in between, as the annual festival “A Tapestry of Sacred Music” takes over the bay for three days of concerts and events.Now in its eighth year, “Tapestry” celebrates traditional and religious music from across Asia and the world. The festival opens Friday night with the colors, drama, and acrobatics of the traditional Korean lion dance. Later that night, visitors to the Esplanade Concert Hall and Recital Studio will have the chance to experience “qawwali,” Sufi devotional music that, in the words of the organizers, “draws the audience into a transcendental world of chants, at once human and divine.”Highlights on Saturday will include a free morning performance of Buddhist chant, an evening of Islamic devotional “qaṣīdah” poetry, and a concert with New York’s Glory Gospel Singers. (This show is one of four ticketed events at the festival.)Fans of “mugham,” or those interested in experiencing the Azerbaijani folk music for the first time, can see mugham master Alim Qasimov at the Esplanade Sunday. Qasimov, who has collaborated with world-famous classical musicians such as the Kronos Quartet and Yo-Yo Ma, will be accompanied on traditional instruments by his daughter Farghana.These performances represent just a few offerings of what promises to be a jam-packed weekend. Those looking for a moment of escape from the hubbub of the festival may want to check out the free morning meditation sessions.“A Tapestry of Sacred Music” runs April 15-17 at various venues at Esplanade, in Singapore.
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