Fighting boredom with music, artists and musicians in Hasakah share musical evenings online

Hasakah – North-Press Agency
Hoshang Hassan

With the announcement of the lockdown in northeastern Syria, which was preceded by the declaration of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria of the cancellation of all gatherings, including concerts and artistic evenings, Faraj Darwish, an artist and music teacher from the city of Hasakah in northeastern Syria, began appearing via live broadcast on social media to perform festive and folk songs as well as songs of his own.

Later, his younger brother, Hozan, who plays the zither, joined him, then Lewend and Jan, who live in the same neighborhood, held virtual music evenings via social media, which became a way to communicate after the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic in the world.

The broadcast begins by introducing the members of the musical group to the followers, who gradually increase and reach hundreds. The followers also express their opinions about the music by commenting on the broadcast, which is often positive, each requesting that the group play his or her his favorite songs.

About the aim of these musical evenings, Darwish says: "As a result of the lockdown, everyone sits at home, and I know that it is boring, so we want to offer musical evenings that contribute to entertaining followers and breaking their boredom."

The group appears every three or four days in a live broadcast on Facebook or Instagram, which starts at 10:00 p.m. and lasts for about two hours. In them, they exchange greetings between the members of the group and the followers, and read their comments in addition to playing and singing a number of Kurdish and Arabic songs.

Darwish added: "We also benefit from these evenings. We are trained to appear in front of an audience that we do not see, and we can also know their reactions to our songs," describing how this is new to them.

Regarding these activities and other similar activities, Rawda Hassan, the co-chair of the Culture Authority in al-Jazira region, told North-Press that they welcome the initiatives undertaken by artists and poets, as "it is an important step in order to introduce the culture of the region and take advantage of the time they spend in quarantine, and it is an opportunity to develop talent for young people," she said.