THE ORIENTAL PIANO: Zeina Abirached & Stéphane Tsapis
Tonight, Tuesday, April 28, 2026, the French Weeks in Oman culminate in a masterpiece of cross-cultural storytelling. Held at the prestigious Bait Al Zubair museum, the closing event—"The Oriental Piano"—is more than a performance; it is a live dialogue between the visual and the auditory, bridging the shores of the Mediterranean with the heart of Muscat.
Under the patronage of H.E. Nabil Hajlaoui, this evening marks the peak of the 2026 "Muscat-Paris Axis," proving once again that the most enduring diplomatic ties are those written in the language of art.
The Visionaries: Zeina Abirached & Stéphane Tsapis
To understand the weight of tonight’s performance, one must look at the exceptional pedigree of the artists leading the narrative.
Zeina Abirached: The Graphic Novelist of Memory
Zeina Abirached is one of the most celebrated Franco-Lebanese graphic novelists of our time. Her work, often characterized by its striking black-and-white aesthetic, explores the delicate intersections of identity, memory, and the "dual culture" of the Levant and Europe.
The Inspiration: Tonight’s performance is inspired by her award-winning graphic novel Le Piano Oriental. It tells the story of her great-grandfather’s quest to create a piano capable of playing the "quarter tones" of Arabic music—a metaphor for the beautiful complexity of living between two worlds.
The Live Element: Watching Abirached "draw" the narrative live while the music unfolds is a rare experience in Muscat’s cultural calendar, offering a modern take on the ancient art of the storyteller.
Stéphane Tsapis: The Virtuoso of the Hybrid Keys
Accompanying the visual journey is the acclaimed pianist and composer Stéphane Tsapis. A master of the "Cultural Fusion" genre, Tsapis is known for his ability to weave Greek, Arabic, and French jazz influences into a singular, breathtaking soundscape.
The Sound of the Bridge: Tsapis doesn't just play the piano; he makes it speak. His collaboration with Abirached ensures that every stroke of the pen is met with a harmonic echo, perfectly capturing the "Oriental" soul within a Western classical frame.
Ink, Ivory, and the Soul of a Story
Tonight, Bait Al Zubair hosts a rare kind of magic. As the final note of the French Weeks, "The Oriental Piano" isn't just a concert—it’s a delicate conversation between a pen and a piano, between Paris and the Levant, and ultimately, between two cultures that share a deep, ancestral love for the spoken word.
The Art of the "In-Between"
Zeina Abirached (the ink) and Stéphane Tsapis (the ivory) bring us into a world of "Musical Storytelling." Zeina draws the rhythm of her family’s history while Stéphane plays the melodies of a piano that learned to speak Arabic. It is a performance that values the quiet moments, the fine lines, and the quarter-tones that exist between the notes.
A Mirror to Omani Poetry
There is a beautiful symmetry here. Just as the Omani poetic tradition uses the rhythm of the voice to carry the history of a people, Zeina and Stéphane use their art to navigate memory. In the Sultanate, where a single line of poetry can bridge generations, tonight’s performance feels right at home.
Whether through a Nabati poem or a graphic novel, the heart of the story remains the same: a search for harmony, a respect for heritage, and the courage to find beauty in the "between."
The Quiet Support
Tonight’s elegance is made possible by the quiet, steady support of the French business community in Oman—names like Airbus, Thales, and TotalEnergies—who have stepped back to let the art take center stage. Their presence at the bottom of the invitation is a silent nod to the fact that even the most modern industries are built on the foundations of culture.