Singer-songwriter Mo Sabri was born and grew up in Johnson City, Tenn., in the Appalachian cradle of country music, and he’s steeped in that tradition. Sabri is also a first-generation American whose family immigrated from Pakistan, and has deep connections to the musical traditions of Sufism — an Islamic religious practice with a focus on spiritual experience — and qawwali, a Sufi devotional singing practice. Many of his single releases have been strongly in a contemporary country vein, sonically at least; his 2023 track “The Color of My Heart” has a unifying message that you’d hope to hear more of from mainstream country. Sabri’s forthcoming album Tennessee Desi intends to thoroughly incorporate both of the traditions that are such an intrinsic part of his identity into a whole new sound, and he’s planned a very special concert to debut the material with a group of the Nashville Symphony’s unbeatable musicians. In addition, the event marks the end of Eid al-Adha, one of the two major springtime holidays in Muslim observance.
2 p.m. at the Schermerhorn
1 Symphony Place
