The Philadelphia Arab Music Ensemble was fortunate to have its first appearance out-of-town on March 26, 2011.

At the invitation of DIWAN: A Forum for the Arts, which is an initiative of the Arab American National Museum, members of the Ensemble performed on the second day of the conference held at the Graduate Center for City University of New York.

Led by Music Director Hanna Khoury the Ensemble of singers and instrumentalists performed music from Lebanon and Egypt, including works composed by Marcel Khalife and Sayed Darwish. The audience, was very receptive and clapped along to popular songs like Muntasiba Al-Kamati, Ya Bahriye, and Bint Al-Chalabiya. As an encore, Khoury and Percussion Director Hafez El Ali Kotain performed two duets with taqasim on the violin and percussion solo.

Holly Arida, Event Coordinator of DIWAN 2011, later remarked: As riveting of a performance as it was on stage, I actually found myself wanting to take pictures of the audience to capture their expressions of utter joy and surprise in seeing and hearing your troupe singing deep Arab sentiments, in their words and in their language, and so earnestly celebrating Arab culture….As a fellow educator who is dedicated to teaching to cross cultural competence, the educational model that you offer is daring and groundbreaking as it cuts across generations, skill level, and cultural boundaries for people to learn together.

Overall, the DIWAN conference was a huge success with many artists and scholar from around the country converging to present and converse about a myriad of issues, ranging from reflections on 9/11 in the works of Arab American artists to how art shapes perceptions about Arab Americans. For more info about the conference, please visit DIWAN.

Photos Courtesy of DIWAN (except for first photo):

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