Maya Youssef: New Paths Through Old Worlds
NNF Artist In Residence delivers an enjoyable performance in a lovely venue but it doesn’t quite hit the spot.
For my first (and unfortunately only) Norfolk & Norwich show of 2026, it was off to the Octagon Chapel for NNF Artist in Residence Maya Youssef and her band.
Firstly, a quick word about the venue. Due my religious beliefs (or, more accurately, lack thereof), I am not a frequent visitor to the Octagon Chapel. In fact, this is my visit for about a decade. That is a shame as it is a truly lovely building with great acoustics.
Back to the show. I have been a fan of Youssef’s Finding Home album for a while but this show is centred on her forthcoming album, with almost all of the songs receiving their live debuts.
The set explored the meeting point between Middle Eastern and Celtic traditions. Along with Youssef playing qanun (from the zither instrument family), there is Francis McIlduff on uilleann pipes, whistles and bodhran, cellist Alice Allen and Ben Smith on piano and keyboards
The set opens with McIlduff performing O’Sullivan’s Lament solo before Youssef, Allen and Smith join him. As with all of the songs from this point on, Youssef takes some time giving the background to the next song, on this case Back To The Earth. Third tune Call to the Mother is “kind of inspired by an old English folk song” and is sweeping and cinematic in its scope. As its title suggests, Medley: Syria to Ireland to Scotland starts with a traditional Syrian piece before
segueing into an Irish folk song and finishing with Auld Lang Syne. 3 Sacred Drops is inspired by the Welsh epic of Taliesin. The set concludes with Waterfall Jig before an encore old of a Scottish harvest song reimagined and renamed Barley Blessings.
I had high expectations because of my affection for both the Finding Home album and the Octagon Chapel as a musical performance space. Overall, enjoyable as the set was it didn’t quite hit the spot. Youssef will be playing a Finding Home show at St Peter Mancroft on Friday - for which tickets are still available (at the time of writing) but which I cannot get to - and I suspect that will meet my expectations (and then some).
