Music and architecture come together in a series of talks and concerts hosted in, and inspired by, the unique buildings of Australia’s most famous modernist architect, Harry Seidler.

This powerhouse duo features famed oud player Rahim AlHaj and cellist Karim Wasfi. The oud has captivated audiences for more than 5,000 years, and the tradition lives on with this performance by one of the world's best players.

AlHaj has worked with Kronos Quartet and R.E.M, and his 2017 album Letters From Iraq captures the pressures of life lived in a state of permanent warfare, in a series of achingly beautiful pieces about young love and family.

Cellist Karim Wasfi is a former conductor of the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra, who is best known in the west for performing at the site of car bomb explosions in Baghdad.

Helen O’Neill in conversation with Simon Marnie (ABC Radio Sydney)

Helen O’Neill is an award-winning, internationally published journalist with over 25 years’ experience who has worked for major newspapers such as The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian, The Independent, The Guardian, The Observer and The Telegraph in the UK.

Helen has also published five books on topics as diverse as Daffodil – A Biography of a Flower, David Jones’ 175 Years and Florence Broadhurst – Her Secret and Extraordinary Life, but it will be her remarkable book A Singular Vision: Harry Seidler that she will discuss at the Seidler Penthouse in North Sydney.

Helen wrote the biography of Harry Seidler with full access to the family and their archives, and will entrance all with tales of Australia’s visionary architect.

Read the Seidler Salon Series program on Issuu

Download the Seidler Salon Series program