Please join us on February 17, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. in Chandler Recital Hall for a concert of traditional muwashshahat and favorite popular songs from Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan.
Established in 1994, the Middle Eastern Music Ensemble welcomes students, faculty, and community musicians. It explores the styles and repertoires of Arab, Turkish, Persian, Armenian, and Greek musical traditions. Faculty and ensemble members together study new and different repertoires of music. The ensemble has become an exemplar of the student/faculty research that characterizes William & Mary.
Over the years, the group has presented numerous formal concerts featuring guest artists from a variety of Arab and Middle Eastern music traditions. Through education and outreach, this ensemble has enriched campus and community life with its many concerts, guest artists, and scholars. The group generally gives 1-2 formal full-length concerts per semester, usually with a guest artist, and several shorter performances at events on campus and in the community.
The Middle Eastern Music Ensemble’s instrumentation is flexible depending on the year and the ensemble’s current repertoire. The ensemble generally includes:
– ‘Ud (pronounced “ood”) – a pear-shaped, fretless lute
– Several violins (tuned G-D-g-d)
– 1-2 violas
– Cellos
– Bass
– Nay (rhymes with “high”) – a reed flute
– Qanun (pronounced “kanoon”) – a 75-string lap zither
– Percussion instruments including the Tablah/Darabukah drum, various frame drums known as Daff, Tar, or Bendir, the Riqq, a tambourine, and sometimes the Tabl Baladi (a big bass drum), Marawis (small laced drums from the Arabian Gulf), and Sagat (finger cymbals)
– On occasion, saxophone, clarinet, accordion, piano, Arabic synthesizer, or harmonica