Music Week

A native of the Comoros archipelago, Nawal is a singer-songwriter and  the first woman musician of these islands to perform in public. Her deep, warm and rich voice did not take long to be recognized as the "Voice of the Comoros".
Artist and producer, Nawal evolves on the professional scene now for over 20 years. Between traditional and contemporary, Nawal's acoustic music weaves a harmonious dialogue between cultures Indo-Arab-Persian, with polyphonic Bantu, Sufi songs and the syncopated rhythms of the Indian Ocean.
During her childhood, Nawal bathed in a world of music both pop and spiritual. The musical influences of her youth are mainly composed of dhikr (sacred Sufi singing), Twarab music and the Afropop-group of her uncle in the 1970s.

Nawal is an African Muslim, but she doesn’t adhere to close to those socio-religious codes of an older age, and has faced thus many obstacles during her career. However, she retained the philosophy and the message behind it. As a descendant of El Maarouf (1852-1904), a great Sufi Marabout of Comoros, she continues to follow the light of Islam based on love, respect and peace. Nawal sings in Comorian mostly, but also in Arabic, French and English.

Mehmet Ungan was born in 1957 in Adana, Turkey. Through his parents he came into contact with the Arab-Turkish folk music and classical Turkish music early on. In his youth he was active as a guitarist and a drummer in several rock bands.
By Dr. Oruc Güvenc and his band Tümata he met Turkish Sufi music and its Central Asian shamanic roots. He studied the traditional instruments saz, oud and ney and began to occupy himself intensively with Sufism.
With his Sufi music group ’Hosh Neva’ (of which his brother Ali Ungan is also a member) he is a regular guest on intercultural and interfaith events across Europe. The virtuosity on his instruments oud and ney he owes his two teachers Necati Çelik and Ömer Erdogdular (student of the legendary master Niyazi Sayin Ney).
The integrating and healing powers of music have also found their place In Mehmet's work as a sociologist and social worker. He teaches and supports young people in mosques and youth centers and has initiated successfully several music projects for youths.

Ali Ungan was born in 1967 in Adana, Turkey. After completing his studies in chemistry, he came to Germany in 1992. He completed a qualifying course at the Goethe Institute and taught German as a foreign language and music at the Mannheim Institute for Integration and at the German-Turkish cultural center in Mannheim. Ungan Ali is an active musician and co-founder of the Eastern Academy of Music in Mannheim (OMM).
From 2003 to 2010 he taught at the Free Waldorf School Intercultural Mannheim as a teacher and has chaired several school projects. He taught Alevi religion at the Astrid Lindgren school in Mannheim.
From 2008 on he has been leading several projects in collaboration with the Oriental Academy of Music in Mannheim, based upon his concept of "Intercultural learning through music and movement".  This has been applied in different schools in Mannheim. Since July 2011 he teaches music and intercultural communication at the "SRH-Fachschule für Soziales" in Heidelberg.