I am honoured to have been invited to join Kirill Gerstein in the distinguished online forum for leading thinkers hosted by Kronberg Academy on 20 May, 5pm BST (6pm CET). “Sound journeys with the oriental lute”. What can Europeans learn from listening to the oud? Something about difference and cross-cultural Read more…
I am thrilled to have won the Frances Densmore Prize for my article “Orientation through Instruments: The ʿūd, the Palestinian Home, and Kamīlyā Jubrān” in the world of music (new series), vol. 8, no. 1, 2019. This prize is awarded annually by the American Musical Instrument Society for the most Read more…
Do you want to study world music traditions? To play and sing music of the Middle East? Of India? My new Music Boat may be for you. It brings together a team of outstanding musicians in the classcial traditions of Asia, in search of new ways of sharing repertoire in a Read more…
During the first Covid-19 lockdown I launched Music Boat, a collaboration with outstanding musicians in the classcial traditions of Asia, in search of new ways of sharing repertoire in a rapidly-changing world. We are a collaborating team of Europe-based musicians hailing from Mexico, Germany, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, Spain Read more…
Oudmigrations is an internet-based project dedicated to the journeys of ouds, their histories, and the stories attached to their makers, players, and owners. I developed the research thanks to a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust, and worked in collaboration with musician, luthier and researcher Karim Othman-Hassan. When we launched in April Read more…
The London launch of the long-awaited English translation of Wasif Jawhariyyeh’s memoirs was held at London’s Mosaic Rooms in February 2014. Jawhariyyeh’s account of Palestine in the late Ottoman and British Mandate eras is an indispensible document for historians, and also provides fantastic insights into music-making of the period. It Read more…
Ligeti was at the heart of progressive movements in classical composition in Europe from the 1960s onwards, but in this book I examined his work through the frame of his earlier Hungarian influences. I dug out numerous sources from communist-era archives, demonstrating the machinery of artistic censorship and Ligeti’s enmeshed Read more…