listening session
with Guest Curator Mohamed Ben Saïd
DATE & TIME
Wednesday, April 22, 2026 – 9:00pm
VENUE
Spektakel
Hamburgerstraße 14, 1050 Vienna
ENTRANCE
Free entry
Listening session
At the Listening Session of Salam Salon, this year’s Salam Music guest curator Mohamed Ben Saïd invites the audience into a focused and intimate evening dedicated to one of the most distinctive voices in modern Arab music - Ziad Rahbani. For this occasion, he has curated a playlist, creating a shared space to listen, reflect and revisit a legacy that remains urgent and deeply present.
Curatorial Note:
“In the presence of music that could belong to no one but its maker, I have chosen to dedicate the Listening Session to the enduring legacy of Ziad Rahbani, one of the most singular and uncompromising voices in modern Arab music and theatre.
As a curator and longtime admirer of his work, I have always seen in Ziad far more than a composer. He was a provocateur, a playwright of rare acuity, and an unfiltered chronicler of his time. With fearless instinct, he fused jazz structures with Arabic musical traditions, satire with melancholy, politics with the intimacy of everyday life. He forged a language entirely his own, restless, ironic and deeply human, resonating across generations throughout the Arab world.
Through boundary-defying theatrical works and compositions marked by an unmistakable harmonic signature, Ziad transformed art into a space of confrontation and clarity. His work did not merely entertain. It questioned, unsettled and illuminated. He embodied artistic freedom not as a slogan, but as a lived and uncompromising practice.
This evening at Salam Salon is conceived as a shared act of listening. An invitation to revisit his music not as nostalgia, but as a living and urgent voice.”
Mohamed Ben Saïd
Guest Curator Salam Music Festival 2026
Mohamed Ben Saïd
A central element of this year’s festival edition is the collaboration with our guest curator Mohamed Ben Saïd. The Tunisian promoter and curator brings his extensive experience and international network to the development of the music programme. Together with him, a programme has emerged that brings together established international artists as well as innovative new music projects.
Mohamed has more than 20 years of experience in event production, artist management and international touring. He repositioned the International Festival of Dougga - a UNESCO World Heritage Site - as a contemporary cultural platform. Previously, he co-founded the festival Mousiqa Wassalem and directed major programmes such as the Carthage Music Days (JMC). As founder of Akacia Productions (Tunis/Paris), he collaborates with leading voices of the alternative music scene and builds sustainable networks between Europe, the MENA region and Africa.
His curatorial vision: strengthening artists, fostering intercultural dialogue and developing long-term music ecosystems.
