Al-Ahram Weekly | Entertainment | The East blows in from the West

The UCSB Middle East Ensemble brings familiar Arab musical instruments all the way from California to give an outstanding concert at the Opera House. For Ghada Abdel-Kader the familiar tunes brought back memories

Last week's concert by the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) Middle East Ensemble (MEE) at the Open Air Theatre of the Cairo Opera House was the first for the ensemble in Egypt, but we hope it won't be the last time this magical troupe pays us a visit.

The bright posters all over town gave little indication of what to expect, so I guessed it would be a fairly ordinary concert. Not a bit of it. Shortly after the 8pm start I was as rapt as the rest of the audience -- a mixed company of music lovers, young couples, family groups and the elderly, and among which I spotted such celebrities as film critic Rafik El-Saban and veteran writer Mahfouz Abdel-Rahman.

The ensemble's 60 members, comprising principal singers, choir, dancers and musicians, vary in age but are all American. They are versed to sing, play and perform in a number of musical styles sourced from a variety of cultures -- Arab, Turkish, Persian, Armenian, Greek, Sephardic and Oriental Jewish, Kurdish, and Assyrian -- that reflect the great diversity of cultures and arts in the Middle East and eastern regions, and yet they seem unperturbed by this plethora of difficult languages.

At the Opera House the MEE presented a mix of classical, folk, popular, religious and children's songs, and performed a great range of music and dance from such diverse countries as Egypt, Greece, Iran, Lebanon, Palestine and Azerbaijan.

The evening began, somewhat appropriately, with Umm Kalthoum's love song Inta Omari (You Are My Life), which immediately caught the audience's attention in an almost knee-jerk reaction to the charm of the music and lyrics. However I particularly relished the folk songs of Sayed Darwish Zuroni Kol Sana Mara (Visit Me Once A Year) and Telaat Ya Mahla Norha (The Rising Of The Beautiful Sun), which were followed by an Iranian dance. The audience also appreciated Mohamed El-Kahlawi's religious song Madad Ya Nabi, ( Help O'Prophet ) followed in turn by a folk dance from Greece . Afterwards we listened to Fairouz's Aateni Al-Nay Wa Ghani ( Give Me The Flute And Sing) and Abdel-Halim Hafez's Ahawak (I Love You). The Mohamed Fawzi song Mama Zamanha Gaya (Mummy's Coming) brought back memories of my childhood, when it was a favorite of mine.

The MEE, an "Ethnomusicology Performance Ensemble", was founded in 1989 by Scott Marcus, ethnomusicology professor in the university's music department. I wondered how the members of this all-American group could pronounce the Arabic words so very precisely, as though they spoke the language every day. So later I asked Magda Campo, professor of Arabic at UCSB and a member of the ensemble, how they managed it. Campo, who plays the riq (tambourine) and other percussion, has lived in California for 32 years and this was her first visit to Egypt. She was introduced to the MEE by friends soon after she arrived in Santa Barbara. "I didn't know it existed," she says. "So my husband called Professor Scott Marcus. At first my husband performed with them -- he played the oud (lute) -- and then I joined later on. I have been playing for 20 years now in this ensemble."

Campo said that it was a little difficult at first because none of the troupe knew Arabic, but she soon began to turn this around. "I met them once a week from 5:00 to 6:30pm. I taught them how to pronounce Arabic correctly, and I gave them the meanings of the songs so they could convey the meaning and could see how to sing them properly."

Marcus, the ensemble's founder and director, teaches Middle Eastern and Indian music at UCSB. "There was a professor at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) who was from Lebanon," Marcus told Al-Ahram Weekly. "He taught Arab and Middle Eastern music. I was doing my doctorate on music from different parts of the world, and at that time I was studying Indian music. I went to India and lived there for five years, and I was expecting to go on studying Indian music. But my professor then got me interested and because of him I started studying it all."

Marcus studied the oud under the professor for five years. In 1982 he came to Egypt and had the great fortune to study with the outstanding Egyptian oud player George Michel. He later completed his doctorate in Arab music, and after that he turned to Arab popular and folk music. His favorite singer is Mohamed Hakim.

"I went every single day one summer to where Egyptian Singer Mohamed Hakim was performing," he said. "I saw around 30 or 40 of his performances. Over time, I studied many areas of Egyptian music and culture."

Marcus was hired by UCSB even before he gained his doctorate from UCLA. "The university was very happy to establish the Middle East Ensemble, and because of it my job became permanent," he said.

The ensemble's performances are colourful, cheerful and resound with the atmosphere of the Middle East. This is established by the way the women dress; they are in bright galabiyas (gowns) although the men wear tuxedos. "We follow the example of the Abdel-Halim Noweria Ensemble for Arab Music at the Cairo Opera House." Marcus says. Noweria was his teacher from 1982 to 1984, and Marcus holds his in high esteem.

The MEE was invited to Egypt by the Ministry of Culture, who organised their Egyptian tour.

Campo says she has been greatly impressed by their Egyptian reception. "The audience is fantastic," she says. "Egyptian audiences are different from American ones. Here they are very polite and wait until the end to clap. I'm not used to this. Egyptians are very gay by nature. We can sense that they like what we do by clapping and singing along with us."

The MEE presented four concerts at the Cairo Opera House from 14 to 17 July before going on to perform in Isamiliya, Helwan and Beni Sueif. All the concerts were completely sold out. If ever proof were needed that music travels, this must be it.