Call to Prayer

Ghalia Benali. Tunisian-Belgian artist started her artistic career in 1992 as a singer, writer, composer, dancer, visual artist, painter, designer & actress. Blending different types of music, connecting different cultures; reviving the old and rooting the new are a natural outcome of mixing the two extremes she lived through. Born in Brussels, raised in south Tunisia. Studied Graphic Design in St. LUC Institute – Brussels. Her music has been noted for its attribution to multiple genres and defining contemporary Arabic music.

Romina Lischka studied viola da gamba with Paolo Pandolfo at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Basel, Switzerland) and was awarded her soloist diploma “with distinction” in 2006. She continued her studies with Philippe Pierlot at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels where she received her Master’s diploma “with distinction” in 2008.

Since graduation, Romina has worked as a free-lance gambist with ensembles such as Collegium Vocale (Philippe Herreweghe), Gli Angeli Genève and Il Gardelino. Her concert activities have brought her to prestigious concert halls and festivals throughout Europe, Russia, Asia, North and South America. In 2012, Romina performed the premier of George Benjamin’s opera Written on Skin at the festival in Aix-en- Provence and has travelled with this production to the Opéra Comique in Paris and the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. She has also toured with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra throughout Europa (Teatro Real Madrid, Barbican London, etc.) and with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in China (Beijing Music Festival, etc.).

In the 2012-13 concert season, Romina was chosen as the early music “ECHO Rising Star” by the BOZAR (Brussels) and Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), which resulted in solo performances at various European concert venues.
Romina can be heard on numerous CDs on the labels Coro, Flora, Ricercar, Christophorus, Musica Ficta, Fuga Libera en Paraty. Her debut CD Pièces de viole de Sietur de Machy received the top 5 star rating by Diapason. The CD En Suite – Marin Marais, Sainte Colombe & Robert de Visée was awarded the Klara prize for “best classical CD of 2015.”

Alongside her activities as a gambist, Romina also studied North Indian classical singing (dhrupad) at the World Music department at the Rotterdam Conservatory (Bachelor, 2010) and in India (Delhi and Pune) with Ustad Fariduddin Dagar en Uday Bhawalkar. Combining all her musical interests, Romina formed the Hathor Consort in 2012 to perform not only Renaissance and Baroque consort music, but also modern works and world music.

www.rominalischka.eu

www.hathor-consort.eu