Masha’s Legacy are proud to present their end of year concert for the first time at the iconic Bondi Pavilion Theatre at 8pm on 8 Dec 2018.

Featuring our unique stellar cast of musicians and dancers, we are happy to announce special guest singers renowned Diva Fay Sussman, Lebanese-Australian superstars Ghada Daher-Elmowy and Christopher Moussa will join us for this special concert event. We’re also delighted to announce dancers Jrisi Jusakos and Jordan Galliott (Qld) for this show, plus special guest drummer Deva Permana.

Now celebrating its 8th year, Masha’s Legacy is a unique intercultural performance ensemble featuring celebrated international performers from countries spanning the Middle-East, South America and beyond, all of who are proud to call Australia home. With pluralism as a central pillar of our strength, we are proud to include members from a broad range of backgrounds who co-collaborate to create extraordinary original music and movement pieces.

The ensemble features:

Elsen Price – double bass Adem Yilmaz – percussion Nicholas Southcott – keyboards Mohammed Lelo-Qanun and Stuart Vandegraaff – reeds plus more special guests to be announced.

The original music draws from our vast wealth of heritage and culture, as well as deep experience in mainstream artistic and commercial styles including jazz, European classical, flamenco, klezmer and Arabic music. The vocal repertoire also draws upon original arrangements of much loved, traditional music from traditions including Arabic, Ladino, Polish and Hebrew. Expect oriental sounds, deep groove, a touch of Flamenco, improvisation and something original – Masha’s melting pot is deep and fragrant!

What: Masha’s Legacy End Of Year Concert

Where: Bondi Pavilion Theatre

When: 8th December 8pm

For More Information Click Here

More about Masha’s Legacy bandleader, music director and composer Stuart Vandegraaff:

Stuart Vandegraaff is a multi-instrumentalist (saxophones, clarinet, flute, Arabic nāys) performer, bandleader and composer renowned for his work in the intercultural music sphere. Initially trained as a classical (award-winning) saxophonist, Stuart studied jazz performance on alto saxophone at Adelaide Conservatorium. He has since developed deep specialisations in Brazilian music styles, Arabic music, Klezmer and Rroma styles, and developed a unique approach to improvisation based on jazz, extemporisation from folkloric styles and tārāb. His recently completed academic work includes presentation of research outcomes nationally and internationally derived from his Masters study (Sydney Conservatorium, completed 2018) into the development of a comprehensive technical and expressive approach to performance on saxophones of music derived from Arabic māqāmat (modes).

A former principal player in both the Royal Australian Navy and NSW Police Band, Stuart is now a full-time independent performer, composer and educator. His recent international performance schedule has taken him to USA, New Zealand, Canada, India, Brazil, China, across the Middle-East and throughout Europe. He is co-founder and music director of intercultural performance ensemble Masha’s Legacy, co-founder of the Clube Nacional do Chorinho na Australia, is a regular performer with the orchestra of the Andalus Arabic Choir and has applied a tārāb-derived approach to his overall musical practice including with original Assyrian group Azadoota and the celebrated Zela Margossian Quintet.