Later on the show, we’re taking you on a musical trip to the Middle East with the newly formed The Saffron. The quartet’s members will be with us to tell us about their passion for traditional Middle Eastern music. Tradition is also an inspiration for local performer Rika Woo.
Fuelled by her determination to perform on stage, and the childhood influence of her grandfather, Woo now performs and teaches Cantonese opera. But she also has another identity: as a J-pop idol.

Here at the Villepin gallery, “Worlds Within: Art As Refuge”, is a group show that features four artists from the Asian diaspora. They are Zao Wou-ki, a Chinese-born artist who later moved to France, Spanish Filipino painter Fernando Zóbel, Lê Phổ, a Vietnamese painter from the School of Paris, and Kang Myonghi, a painter and traveller who worked in both Seoul and Paris.

Formed at the end of June, The Saffron ensemble performs traditional Middle Eastern music using instruments such as the stringed qanun, the lute-like oud, the darbuka, which is a goblet-shaped drum, and the not so Middle Eastern cello. The quartet recently performed at the Hong Kong Palace Museum in an event that complemented an ongoing exhibition of Imperial carpets from three Islamic empires. They’re with us now to tell us more about how their interest in traditional Turkish and Iranian compositions came about.