Discography
Native Informant (2013)
“Native Informant, written for leading international soloist Rachel Barton Pine, embodies Arabic fiddling motifs as well as songful excitement, underpinned by a lament for the victims of the Egyptian Revolution. The lullaby Tahwidah and the song cycle Posh evoke tenderness and loss, whilst Jebel Lebnan was commissioned by the Imani Winds and musically chronicles events from the Lebanese Civil War and their effect on the current face of Lebanon.” —from Naxos
SUMEIDA’S SONG (2012)
iTunes | Amazon | Bridge Records
“Mohammed Fairouz wrote Sumeida’s Song, a lushly scored chamber opera, when he was only 22. Its concerns with peace and communal healing place it in the humane tradition of such works as Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra and Don Carlos.”
—Marion Lignana Rosenberg, WQXR
CRITICAL MODELS (2011)
iTunes | Amazon | Dorian Sono Luminus
“There’s an embarrassment of riches on Critical Models, the debut solo album by 20-something composer Mohammed Fairouz. And yet the chamber nature of the record’s six pieces lends an unshakable sense of intoxicating intimacy.” [full review]
—WQXR/Q2 Album of the Week
Exiles Cafe (2013)
“This sixth of Fairouz’s series of piano miniatures is subtitled “Addio”. I include it here in tribute to all the farewells that are said, in all the journeys of exile.” —Lara Downes, Exiles Cafe Liner Notes
FIVE BOROUGH SONGBOOK (2012)
iTunes | Amazon | GPR Records
“Mohammed Fairouz’s ‘Refugee Blues’ is an arresting, self-contained melting pot: it begins with Middle Eastern modal writing and moves decisively into Western melody, with driven rhythms that convey the shape (metrically and emotionally) of that dark Auden poem.” —Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
AS IT WAS, AND WILL BE (2011)
info | The Living Archive Store | GM Recordings
“The Borromeo players achieve the special balancing act of patience and ferocity in Mohammed Fairouz’s Lamentation and Satire, an intensely felt score in which the instruments engage in compelling duos, a fugue of doleful urgency and a farewell utterly bereft of hope.” —Donald Rosenberg, Gramophone Magazine
BOSTON DIARY (2010)
iTunes | Amazon | Albany Records
“Mohammed Fairouz’s Bonsai Journal… It’s a technically difficult piece and the poetry seems deliberately separated from the music, as if the two are competing for air space, though there is an underlying dance. By including this piece by a ‘newer generation’ composer, we get a view into the world to come, which, as demonstrated here, seems serious, intense, complex.”
—David Wolman, Fanfare Magazine