About Us
Les Arrivants (The Arrivals) is comprised of Amichai Ben Shalev (bandoneon), Abdul-Wahab Kayyali (oud), and Hamin Honari (percussions), three musicians who settled in Montréal during the COVID-19 pandemic between the summers of 2019 and 2020. Through the lens of this unique moment in history, they met and discovered their new home city as lockdowns and uncertainties permeated their lives.
The repertoire Les Arrivants has developed mirrors their resettlement experience. It is informed by the traditions the instrumentalists have mastered throughout their careers – Argentine Tango, Classical Arabic music, and traditional Persian rhythms. It equally reflects the musical possibilities that can only emerge out of a cosmopolitan centre such as Montréal. Les Arrivants have created an introspective sonic experience that depicts the relationships and views of newcomers to Montréal, while channeling complex emotions associated with migration and travel.
To date, Les Arrivants has released two albums: “Home” (2022) and “Towards the Light” (2024). Their first album, “Home” received the 2023 Opus Prize - Album of the Year award for World Music from the Quebec Council of Music (CQM). Career performance highlights have been two city tours of Montreal sponsored by the Montreal Arts Council (CAM), a performance and lecture at Carleton College’s Weitz Center for the Arts in Minnesota, playing at the Old Songs Festival in Albany, New York, a symphonic project with the Glacier Symphony Orchestra in Kalispell, Montana, and a tour of Colombia as part of Banco de la Republica’s National Concert Season.
Les Arrivants has received substantial production and touring support from the Canada Council of the Arts.
ARTISTS
Les Arrivants
Bandoneon
Amichai Ben Shalev (1979) is a bandoneonist, composer, and arranger. He studied bandoneon with Rodolfo Daluisio at the Superior Conservatory of Music of Buenos Aires, where he also taught. He holds a master’s degree in composition from the Université de Montréal, where he is currently pursuing a doctorate. As a composer, he has written works for a wide range of ensembles, including Bandolirium (2017), an instrumental progressive metal album incorporating the bandoneon; Détour (2022), for symphony orchestra and jazz ensemble, premiered at the Maison symphonique de Montréal; The Water Cycle (2023), for bandoneon and string quartet; Mirar–Abrazar–Caminar (2024), for Ensemble Atipika; and A Groyse Metzieh (2025), for symphony orchestra, premiered at Salle Claude-Champagne in Montreal. In 2026 he was a resident composer for El Sistema-OSM.
Oud
Abdul-Wahab Kayyali commenced his oud studies in 1989 at the National Music Conservatory of Amman, Jordan under the tutelage of Sakher Hattar. While in Amman, he also received tutelage and guidance from Iraqi oud virtuoso Munir Bashir. He has performed widely as a soloist and an ensemble member throughout the Middle East, Europe, North and South America. Abdul-Wahab released his debut solo album “Juthoor” in 2020. In addition to performing with Les Arrivants, he has most recently collaborated to perform and record with Naseem Alatrash (cello), Tariq Harb (classical guitar), Saeed Farajpouri (kamancheh), Salah Eddin Maraqa (qanoun), Merrie Klazek (trumpet), Haitham Haidar (voice), and ensemble Constantinople. Kayyali is also passionate about education and knowledge transfer. He has developed online oud seminars for the Labyrinth Online Academy and has participated as a faculty member in the Arabic Music Retreat. A trained political scientist (PhD, 2018), Kayyali informs his art with the knowledge and training he has received.
HAMIN HONARI
Persian Hand Drums
Hamin Honari is an Iranian Canadian percussionist, composer, and specialist in Persian hand drums whose work bridges tradition and innovation. Born in Zahedan, Iran, and raised in Canada within a rich musical family tradition, he developed a deep connection to rhythm and Persian music from an early age. Honari has performed with leading artists and ensembles such as Kayhan Kalhor and Constantinople. He is known for his expressive, dynamic playing and his ability to bring Persian percussion into dialogue with a wide range of global musical traditions. In addition to his work as a performer and collaborator, he is the Artistic Director of the New Old World Music Society, an organization that brings together intercultural projects and artists from around the world, reflecting his ongoing commitment to artistic exchange, innovation, and cultural connection.
Where we come from, where we are, and where we are going
ILes Arrivants was formed in the fall of 2020, as we were all settling into life in Montreal amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Since our first meeting, we shared our personal and family histories, our countries of origin, and our artistic goals for the project. We navigated our personal relationships with care and empathy. We were not oblivious to the conclusions audiences might reach when they see us – An Iranian-Canadian, An Argentine-Israeli and a Palestinian-Jordanian – together on stage. We were not interested in either using the project to advance a political message, or to use our “co-existence” as a marketing gimmick. What interested us (and still interests us most) is the artistic promise of the project – what we can achieve musically by combining our instruments, our tastes, and our experiences.
With time, it became obvious that we are not only colleagues and friends, but political allies as well. What we have achieved, and what we continue to strive to achieve, rests on a simple premise – our commitment to equality and decolonization in Canada and abroad, and therefore our rejection of racial, colonial, ethnic or other forms of privilege and superiority. We recognize that we live on unceded Indigenous territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation, the recognized custodians of Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. We also recognize that we have ties to the unceded indigenous territory of the Palestinian people, which has historically been home to a diverse population of many faiths and ethnicities. We acknowledge the land’s continued history and connections with the past, the present and the future. We were never interested in advancing a “co-existence” narrative and are even less interested in advancing such a narrative today. We do not believe in “co-existence” with colonial violence, chronic injustice, hegemony, and domination, and we find that advancing that narrative obfuscates the history and reality of systemic inequity. Rather, we are invested in promoting equality and addressing inequity, in Canada and abroad.
Our project shows the promise of equality – its artistic and humane possibilities, what equal citizens and artists can achieve if they are provided equal opportunities, resources, rights and responsibilities. We are committed to this equality both in Canada and the countries to which we have ties. Our vision and hope for the conflicts engulfing the Middle East is simple: if the Middle East is to have a prosperous future, it must rid itself of institutions that safeguard colonial privilege, ethnic and religious superiority, and domination. It must become a region that is equally accessible to all its citizens, irrespective of their racial, ethnic, religious, gender and other identities. This pertains to most countries in the Middle East, but specifically to Israel-Palestine. There, we are committed to political solutions that do not produce more victims: to complete and unconditional freedom and equality of all the people who live between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. We believe only such a solution would address the traumas of conquest and colonization and break the cycles of oppression, violence, and injustice that the people of the region have suffered from for far too long.
We hope that our music helps advance the cause of equality and decolonization, in Canada and abroad. We will ally with all artists and institutions that share our vision for the future.