Toronto Festival Unites Ancient Instruments From 5 Cultures

An instrument born in ancient Babylonia is bringing musicians from five continents together in Toronto for a celebration of sound and shared heritage.

The Hammered festival, running May 16 and 17 at the Aga Khan Museum, showcases the hammered dulcimer and its global family members. This trapezoidal percussion instrument, played with mallets, has evolved differently across cultures for centuries, from the Persian santur to the Chinese yangqin to the Indian santoor.

Amir Amiri, the festival's artistic director and a renowned Montreal-based composer, fell in love with the Persian santur at age six in Iran. When he moved to Canada as an adult, he discovered something remarkable.

"I realized every country, every environment had a dulcimer," Amiri says. Despite shared ancestry, each culture developed unique versions with different lengths, widths, string counts, and playing techniques.

Five years ago, Amiri partnered with the Aga Khan Museum to plan what he calls a musical family reunion. He wanted to create space for these "distant family members" to dialogue through sound.

"Every time I close my eyes and think about it, I get very excited," Amiri shares.

The two-day festival pairs instruments for cross-cultural conversations. Day one features the Indian santoor and European cimbalom, while day two takes audiences on a sonic journey down the Silk Road with the Chinese yangqin and Persian santur.

Why This Inspires

This festival proves that our differences can harmonize beautifully. By bringing together instruments that evolved separately across continents, Hammered shows how cultures can maintain unique identities while sharing common roots.

Amiri compares each musical tradition to an operating system with its own language. The festival creates space for these different systems to communicate and learn from each other through the universal language of music.

Daily artist talks and demonstrations help audiences understand each instrument's unique practices and techniques. Amiri believes this context makes the music more meaningful and accessible.

"The beautiful thing about music is that you can always discover more," he says.

Evening concerts at 7:30 pm feature ensemble pieces, improvisations, original compositions, and immersive performances. These shows blend ancient folkloric traditions with contemporary innovation, demonstrating how heritage and evolution create masterpieces together.

For Amiri, these instruments carry more than melodies. "Every relic can hold an idea, a story," he explains. The dulcimer family preserves centuries of cultural memory in its strings.

The festival encourages audiences to expand how they experience live music. Amiri calls the evening concerts "sonic rituals" that invite listeners into deeper engagement with sound and heritage.

Tickets are available now through the Aga Khan Museum website, with limited $20 rush tickets sold 30 minutes before doors open. Concert tickets include museum gallery admission, making it a full day of cultural exploration.

This weekend, Toronto becomes the meeting place for an instrumental family separated by continents and centuries, finally reuniting through the power of shared sound.