Sanctuary Salon

and performance. Invited guests present and perform new or existing works that resonate with the thesis of the exhibition, allowing visitors to engage with and reflect on these themes in new and compelling ways.
Organized with the support of Diaspora Arts Connection, Sanctuary Salon will be held at the Fort Mason Chapel on Friday, February 23rd from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. Doors open at 6:30pm; the event starts promptly at 7pm. 
**Thanks to the generosity of salon guest Tania Romanov Amochaev (bio below), a signed copy of Mother Tongue will be given to each ticket purchaser.**
 
Guests for the evening include:
Miriam Peretz (bio forthcoming)
Qais Essar Trio
Qais Essar is a contemporary Afghan composer, instrumentalist and producer who channels his melodic designs through the rabab, a 2,500 year old instrument from Afghanistan. He has toured extensively, sharing his new genre of music nationally and internationally. Essar has released two LPs, four EPs and one live album. His first LP, The Green Language (2014), quickly became an Amazon #1 bestseller, followed by his second LP, Tavern of Ruin in 2016. He has contributed original music to feature films also. In 2017, Qais was recruited by director Nora Twomey to compose an original song for her Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated film, The Breadwinner (produced by Angelina Jolie). He earned a Canadian Screen Award nomination for “Best Original Song” for his piece The Crown Sleeps. Additionally, he orchestrated a sold-out run of the musical Tear a Root from the Earth at the OBIE award winning Ice Factory at the New Ohio Theatre in New York City. Essar continues to be featured in festivals and venues around the world including the Newport Folk Festival, SXSW, The Kennedy Center, Treefort Music Festival and more. Essar is planning to tour and release his 3rd LP in 2018.
Born in India, Antara Bhardwaj began her study of Kathak (north Indian classical story-telling dance) with her Guru, the late Pandit Chitresh Das, at the age of nine. She spent many years studying one-on-one with him in the traditional ancient Guru-disciple tradition and went on to become a Kathak soloist, a member of the internationally renowned Chitresh Das Dance Company, and a teacher for the Chhandam School of Kathak. Kathak is a solo art form, and true to the tradition, Bhardwaj focuses on her work as a solo artist. Building on the vision of her Guru, she delves deep into the tradition, at the same time discovering and developing her own unique, contemporary voice. Bhardwaj has performed at the International Kathak Festival (Chicago), Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan, Wisc.), Disney’s REDCAT Theater (Los Angeles), the National Centre for Performing Arts (Mumbai), and in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Eric Zang is a multi-instrumentalist, who's instruments of choice are typically the kaval flute,  percussion, and the oud lute. He is an avid explorer of traditional music from around the world, with much performance experience within flamenco (cajon box drum), and in bringing flavors of Middle Eastern music (kaval, oud, percussion, voice) to the groups he plays in. Additional influences also include African, Latin American, and India. He can be found performing with a variety of musicians from styles such as flamenco, world and jazz fusion, and singer/songwriters, primarily in Phoenix and Sedona, Arizona. 
Tania Romanov Amochaev was born in Belgrade, Serbia of two displaced émigrés―a Russian father and a Croatian mother―and spent her childhood in San Sabba, a refugee camp in Trieste, Italy. After arriving in America on the SS Constitution in 1954, Amochaev grew up in San Francisco, California and earned a degree in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley. She then forged a successful business career, serving as CEO of three technology companies, earning an MS in Management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and receiving an honorary PhD from Saint Catherine University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her story, along with those of her mother and grandmother, is featured in her new book, Mother Tongue: A Saga of Three Generations of Balkan Women. For more information please visit www.taniaromanov.com
Keenan Webster is the founder of SankofaAfrica. Born in in Nashville, Tennessee, his love of music deepened as a teenager in Los Angeles, California, where he began his music studies with Master Teachers from Africa and Cuba. Surrounded by a highly spiritual family, he has spent his life focused on studies of music, religion and history. He is influenced by music giants John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Taj Mahal, El Hadj Kouyate, Toumani Diabate, Robert Johnson, Slip James, Johnny Shines, Habib, Koite and Keltigue Diabate. The music traditions of Latin America, Sumatra and India also infiltrate his style. Webster performs the 21 string kora, a large calabash cut in half and covered with cow skin with a long, hardwood neck. The kora does not fit into any one category of musical instruments, and is classified as a “double-bridge-harp-lute”. Webster also performs on the balaphone (from West Africa), West African drums from the Mandingo or Mende people, the flute and saxophone.
 
Event proceeds support FOR-SITE's presentation of Sanctuary.