Persian classical music concert by the Nahoft Ensemble, with original compositions by ney player Salman Abdi, as a tribute to the poet Omar Khayyam.
Nahoft are playing at Pembroke College Auditorium on Saturday 7 November, with the concert starting at 7:30pm. The night is called An the Moment, and it's built around the work of the Persian poet Omar Khayyam. The whole thing is presented as a celebration of Khayyam, weaving together Persian music and poetry around the idea of the present moment.
What you'll hear is the Nahoft Ensemble performing original compositions by their leader and ney player, Salman Abdi. The programme reads as a tribute to Khayyam's legacy, told through the lens of Persian classical music. The ensemble brings together a wide range of instruments: vocals, kamancheh, ney, guitar, double bass, daf and tombak. Between the kamancheh's bowed lines, the ney's breathy flute, and the percussion of the daf and tombak, there's a lot of ground covered in a single set.
It's a specific kind of evening — Persian music and poetry side by side, with the poetry of Khayyam as the thread that holds it together. The music is original, written by Abdi himself, so it's not a collection of traditional pieces but a new response to an old poet. If you're not familiar with the instruments, the kamancheh is a bowed string instrument, the ney is a reed flute, and the daf and tombak are the frame drum and goblet drum that provide the rhythmic backbone.
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Tickets start from £6, and the concert is at the Pembroke College Auditorium, Pembroke College, Cambridge CB2 1RF. It starts at 7:30pm on Saturday 7 November.
Date
Saturday, 7 November 2026
19:30
Location
Pembroke College AuditoriumPrice
Paid
Recommended Age
+14 years
