Arabesque Ensemble at Bowdoin College

The Arabesque Ensemble will be in residence at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, in conjunction with “Maqam and Meter: An Arabic Music Workshop," sponsored by the NITLE Music Initiative, Orpheus Alliance, and Al-Musharaka. The ensemble will perform classical Arabic music on Saturday, October 28 at 7:30 p.m. at Gibson Hall on the Bowdoin campus. The concert is produced by the Arabesque Foundation for Arab Culture, based in Chicago.

The concert, entitled "The Songs of Sheikh Sayyed Darweesh: Soul of a People," features compositions of the legendary Egyptian musician along with other composers influenced by his work: Riyad al-Sunbati, Muhammad al-Qasabgi, and Muhammad Abd el-Wahab. The ensemble, led by Hicham Chami, includes instrumentalists Hanna Khoury, Michel Merhej, Kinan Abou-Afach along with guest vocalists Youssef Kassab and Albert Agha.

The Arabesque Ensemble presented the Darweesh program during a seven-city CD release tour produced by Xauen Music earlier this year, with concerts at Harvard University, Boston; Symphony Space, New York; Kennedy Center, Washington DC; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago; Town Hall, Seattle; and LaMirada Theatre, Los Angeles. The ensemble will perform during the Festival du Monde Arabe de Montréal in November.

NITLE is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting liberal education. It provides opportunities for teachers in liberal arts contexts to create transformative learning experiences for and with their students by deploying emerging technologies in innovative, effective, and sustainable ways. Its mission is to catalyze innovative teaching to enrich and advance liberal education in the digital age. The "Maqam and Meter" workshop has attracted scholars from around the U.S.

The concert is free and open to the public. For information, please contact Carrie Bueneman at Xauen Music: 773-856-6454.