Sydney musician builds rare kanuns in Australia to teach traditional instrument

Tarik Hussein thinks there were only 10 kanuns in Australia when he began playing in 2006.

The Sydney musician and engineer says he grew up playing the piano and guitar, and discovered the kanun when he was 17 years old.

The kanun is a precursor to the piano, played by plucking 78 strings with the fingers while it lays across the player's lap.

Mr Hussein says it is impossible to find kanuns in Australia, so when he started teaching the instrument, he needed to get them imported from Türkiye.

He says because the instruments are generally quite old and rare, they would often get damaged in transit or wear out quickly.

"They would have a lot of issues with the skin tearing and the bridge collapsing," he says.

To avoid this, Mr Hussein resolved to become the only maker of kanuns in Australia, enlisting the help of his father-in-law, who had a functioning home workshop and a passion for challenging craft projects.

"His woodworking skills helped me to maintain the instruments and repair the instruments," Mr Hussein says.

Mr Hussein said making a kanun was something of a close-guarded secret among the makers in Türkiye, so they reverse-engineered his favourite one.

"He pretty much pulled my favourite one completely apart. It was actually very heartbreaking to see," he said.

"We came up with something that I would say is quite unique. It's not the same as what you'd get overseas.

Mr Hussein says as far as they can tell, they are the only kanun makers in Australia.

But they do this as a labour of love, not as a commercial outfit.

"Then, seeing my students' face light up when I tell them that this is something that we built here, and they're going to learn on that. That really brings me joy."

Exceptional stories in items in the suburbs

Mr Hussein and his father-in-law's personal connection with kanuns features in a new film series launching with a festival marking the opening of Powerhouse Parramatta on November 7.

The series of short films, called Moments in Waiting, is by western Sydney artist Khaled Sabsabi and focuses on significant objects from the Islamic world found in Sydney's suburbs.

Mr Sabsabi says he found the extraordinary in the ordinary after a series of public call-outs over the past few years.

"It is about not just the objects, but also the stories that are contained within those objects," he said.

Mr Sabsabi says Mr Hussein's story shaped up as a modern Australian experience of migration and cultural diversity.

"We come together and, from various places, we bring our technologies, our stories, our being, to shape a modern contemporary Australian identity," he said.

Mr Hussein will also perform his kanun with the Three Rivers Ensemble during the opening festival.

The recently announced festival spans 179 events across four weekends in November, including a talk by veteran astronaut Charles F Bolden Jr, a major performance by a Torres Strait Island group for the first time outside of the islands, and a Diwali day party.

A collection that rivals a museum

Among the stories in Moments in Waiting is a decree from the Ottoman Empire written in four languages that found its way to Australia when the owner fled the early 1990s war in Bosnia.

The series also features an entire home in Bonyrigg in Sydney's south-west that at one point served as a mosque and produced the Australian Muslim Times.

There's also a collection of more than 100 calligraphic manuscripts of the Koran that rivals any Australian museum collection, owned by Sydney teacher Mohamad Ali.

Mr Ali said he had extensively collected vinyl, cassettes and T-shirts of artists such as Madonna, Prince and Eurythmics before finding an interest in Islam in his 20s, when he saw an exhibition by Persian-born collector Nasser David Khalili.

He became fascinated with the intricate work of calligraphers, who would likely have taken years to write a 600-page Koran.

"I just wanted to learn a little bit more about the scribing process … but then that led me to a greater understanding, or a deeper understanding, of what my own personal faith was about."

Mr Ali's extensive collection goes as far back as the 8th century, encompassing many Islamic empires and dynasties.

He hopes the story of his collection will go beyond the Islamic community and create a greater appreciation for the cultural impact of Islam on the world, in art and education.

"Islam's got a lot, and has always had a lot, to contribute to the world's existence," Mr Ali said.