America's Other Orchestras: Arab American Ensemble Series Episode 6

posted on: Sep 14, 2016

Philadelphia’s Garden of Eden

BY: Sami Asmar/Contributing Writer

The name alone tells the whole story, Al-Bustan (the Garden) Seeds of Culture. The Philadelphia non-profit organization promotes Arab culture through music and language by planting the seeds of beauty and the arts with the young and old. With a children ensemble and outreach to the general public, K-12 summer camps and after school programs, Al-Bustan is the most diverse and successful Arab American orchestra. The community organization was founded in 2002 by Hazami Sayed who needed a venue to helping her two sons connect with their Arab heritage, which explains the beautiful name of the organization. Since then, she has succeeded in helping generations of children in the community appreciate the Arab arts.

The crown jewel of the Seeds of Culture is Al-Bustan Takht Ensemble, the chamber quartet directed since 2009 by Hanna Khoury. Hanna is a violinist from the Galilee who is bi-musical with Western and Arab musical training. He also directs the Arabesque Music Ensemble. His impressive resume includes US tours with Fairuz and Kathem Al-Saher as well as Grammy winners and nominees, and has recorded for Shakira and Sting. The UCLA graduate has led the Takht, comprised of the world-renowned musicians in classical Arab music cellist Kinan Abou-afach, qanun player Hicham Chami, and master percussionist Hafez Kotain, into numerous collaborative efforts with renowned guest artists and orchestras. The Takht particularly shines during taqasim improvisations on their instruments between composed pieces, which is the traditional manner of showing musical virtuosity.

Al-Bustan’s annual concert programs include guest artists that forms a who’s who list of Arab and Arab-American stars. Female vocalists have so far included Dalal Abu Amneh, Karima Skalli, Rima Khcheich, Oumeima El-Khalil, Abeer Nehme, and Sonia M’Barek. Composers have included Marcel Khalife, Simon Shaheen, AJ Racy, Kareem Roustom, and poets have so far included Nathalie Handal, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Suheir Hammad. They also worked with numerous other non-Arab artists.

One of the organizations recent commissioned works was the beautiful concert titled Words Adorned that included the world premiere of Kareem Roustom’s Embroidered Verses – Songs on Andalusian Poetry. The grant-funded program built on the golden Arab era of the arts and showcased the interest in the language in addition to the music as Andulusian muwwashahat formed the basis of a special sung poetic genre. Seeds of Culture followed up the concert with innovative educational program that capitalizes on these audience experiences. Their website is very informative and contains material suitable to the novice and the expert.

Prior to that, Musical Encounters was a three-concert event that brought together Al-Bustan Takht and the Prometheus Chamber Orchestra, Philadelphia’s self-managed, self-conducted string ensemble with the purpose of presenting one concert in three different neighborhoods of the city. Prometheus also collaborated with Al-Bustan to present Marcel Khalife, a well-known Lebanese composer.

To audiences delight, Al-Bustan concerts sometimes feature a large children choir; American children who had to learn two new phenomena for their performance: singing in the Arabic language, with some of its difficult and guttural sounds, and singing in the Eastern scale with micro-tones they had not heard before. With huge smiles and enthusiasm, they join prominent artists such as Oumeima El-Khalil of Marcel Khalife in popular songs or muwwashahat making local artistic history.

The new and different sounds and alphabets are indeed the two elements that make Arab music either completely foreign and rejected as strange or accepted as exotic and beautiful. To get the desired response of acceptance and enjoyment, Al-Bustan knows to start with the children who lack biases and are open to new cultural experiences. This educational strategy will pay off in forming a coherent community. Children who were mesmerized by Hicham’s qanun or Hafez’s tabla might eventually settle in other parts of the county and remain un-commissioned ambassadors of this art in their new communities.

Perhaps children who sing together live together in peace, starting in this Philadelphia garden that has set an example for the rest of the world.