The Laleh Ladies

The Laleh Ladies, named after the Persian word Laleh for 'tulip', was a co-creation of mine and Annabel Keeler's, a Persian Scholar and folk musician, from Cambridge. The community choir was intended as a place for Muslim women from different cultures and backgrounds to come together and sing sacred music. It was the first choir of its kind that was known of.

In 2010, Edward Wickham, a Professor of Music and professional musician invited our choir to record some of their songs, to be included in an Abrahamic interfaith sound installation project called 'the Hours'.

Here you can find individual qasidas, sacred songs from the Islamic tradition, which were recorded in St Katherine's College Chapel, in Cambridge. Parts of these songs were woven together with songs by other Abrahamic faith singing groups from the Christian and Jewish traditions to create the installation, which toured the UK the same year.