City of Poets

City of Poets comes to the National Centre for Early Music on Saturday 10 October, a concert that brings together musicians from both sides of the old Soviet-Chinese divide. It's led by Abror Zufarov and Saniyem Ismail, with a group of leading musicians from across that border playing the maqām-based classical repertoire of the Central Asian Uzbek and Uyghur peoples.

The programme centres on Baba Rahim Mashrab, a 17th-century mystic poet and wandering dervish who travelled across Central Asia from Namangan to Kashgar and from Bukhara to Khotan. His poetry still inspires musicians on both sides of the divide, and the concert draws on the musical and poetic connections that 20th-century nationalism submerged. It's supported by the London-based research project Maqām Beyond Nation.

If you're not familiar with maqām, it's the classical music tradition of the region, and this is an original exploration of it rather than a standard recital. The whole thing is built around Mashrab's poetry, so the evening is as much about the words and the history behind them as it is about the music. It's a rare chance to hear these two traditions side by side.

The concert runs from 7:30pm to 8:45pm at the National Centre for Early Music, in St Margaret's Church on Walmgate. Tickets are £24, with concessions at £22 and under-35s at £8.