Projects
Eylem Basaldi’s projects span long-term collaborations, ensemble work, touring and recording with artists, and original compositions shaped by deep listening and cross-cultural dialogue. From bands she has co-founded to theatrical works, commissioned pieces, and genre-defying recordings, each project reflects a commitment to honoring tradition while creating something living and contemporary. This page offers a window into the musical relationships and creative worlds that continue to shape her work on stage and in the studio.
Laura Elkeslassy, Ya Ghorbati
In the multimedia album Ya Ghorbati: Divas in Exile, singer Laura Elkeslassy musically excavates her family’s history in Morocco, France, and Israel/Palestine, coming face-to-face with forgotten ancestors and reclaiming a lost family name. Developed in collaboration with music director Ira Khonen Temple, this project weaves together the stories of Judeo-Arab divas from the last century with new performances and interpretations of their music. Ya Ghorbati looks across time and space to tell a tale of political upheaval, exile, and displacement—ultimately questioning the supposed binary of Arab and Jew.
Art2Action, DRONE
DRONE is a transmedia, ensemble theatre project integrating live music, emerging technologies, and artistic containers for public dialogue. It explores the drone as a metaphor for how we become desensitized to daily violence (domestic and global), the question of Moral Injury, and the effects of remote-control warfare on the human soul.
Gordon Grdina, RU’YA
RU’YA—which means “foresight” or “vision” in Arabic—is a world-premiere ensemble that brings together diverse musical traditions, with vocalist Ghalia Benali (Belgium/Tunisia), pianist Matt Mitchell (U.S.), violinist Eylem Basaldi (Türkiye/U.S.), percussionist Hamin Honari (Canada), and drummer Christian Lillinger (Germany).
Hamed Sinno
H.Sinno is a composer-performer, writer, and designer based in New York. They have been the lyricist and front-person for Mashrou Leila since 2008, engaging conversations around representation, free speech, gender justice, and sexual freedoms in the Middle East. Poems of Consumption is a song cycle built on poetry published in Amazon customer reviews, covering themes like ennui, surveillance capitalism, heartbreak, boycotts, and orientalism, with compositions that juxtapose harsh electronica with the whimsy of a string quartet.
Dolunay
The Brooklyn, NY based trio Dolunay (Turkish for “full moon”) draws upon the songs from the Turkish people living across Rumeli, the former region of the Ottoman Balkans. Dolunay’s intimate sound, sparse in loudness and textured with the dissonance of eastern blues, gives way to a sound at once earthy and celestial, the size of which defies that of the small makeup of the band.
Sandaraa
The unexpected sounds of Sandaraa ("song" in Pashto) show how Eastern Europe the indus Civilization and Central Asia connect. The melismatic might of modal music and the ringing grit of mountain songs, the rollicking trance beats and restrained emotional intensity, have an eerie resonance, despite surface differences. A magical world of global sounds comes alive when superstar Pakistani vocalist Zeb Bangash joins forces with a retinue of leading Brooklyn musicians led by klezmer clarinet virtuoso Michael Winograd to unlock the musical secrets and history of their regions steeped in ecstatic mysticism, war, migrations and ancient cities lost to the sands of time.
Ehsan Matoori
LA-Based Award-winning composer, performer, producer
and Iranian Santoor Player
Sandaraa
The unexpected sounds of Sandaraa ("song" in Pashto) show how Eastern Europe the indus Civilization and Central Asia connect. The melismatic might of modal music and the ringing grit of mountain songs, the rollicking trance beats and restrained emotional intensity, have an eerie resonance, despite surface differences. A magical world of global sounds comes alive when superstar Pakistani vocalist Zeb Bangash joins forces with a retinue of leading Brooklyn musicians led by klezmer clarinet virtuoso Michael Winograd to unlock the musical secrets and history of their regions steeped in ecstatic mysticism, war, migrations and ancient cities lost to the sands of time.
Additional works
En Chordais Greek Chorus and Music Ensemble
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