Inspired by a well-known Persian children’s book, “The Little Black Fish,” the Black Fish retells the story of its protagonist, a little black fish who...

Inspired by a well-known Persian children’s book, “The Little Black Fish,” the Black Fish retells the story of its protagonist, a little black fish who leaves his pond to explore the world beyond, through the lens of the Iranian-Canadian composer, Keyan Emami. The music of The Black Fish Project reflects the diverse influences that have shaped Emami’s compositional language, and the diverse musical traditions of the performers. The musicians each bring something different to the project, including jazz bassist Andrew Downing, Syrian clarinetist Majd Sekkar, the Ton Beau String Quartet, and percussionists Louis Pino and Naoko Tsujita. Improvisation is used throughout the work to put these diverse performance styles into dialogue with one another, and further enrich Emami’s eclectic score.