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The Arab Music Ensemble is an orchestra and choir with vocal and instrumental soloists and with a membership that represents a wide range of majors on campus and professions off campus. Instrumentation includes the oud, qanun, nay, accordion, violin, viola, cello, double bass, riqq, daff, darabukka and more.
Concerts feature world-class guest artists and a dance troupe that sets the music in motion with original choreographies and beautiful costuming. In addition to the seminal selections of Arab art, popular and folk music to be featured in the concert programs, the ensemble will present celebrated pieces of historically interconnected cultures of the Mediterranean and larger region.
Cal Poly Arab Music Ensemble Winter Concert
Saturday, March 1, 2025
7:30 p.m., Performing Arts Center
“The show will begin with a suite of Arab art and popular music that features classic instrumental and vocal pieces ranging from the Ottoman era to contemporary times,” said Arab Music Ensemble Director Ken Habib. “The vocal selections range from a famous example of the muwashshah, a genre of poetry and music that stems from 10th-century Andalusia, to celebrated songs from Iraq and Egypt.”
A takht (chamber ensemble) will begin the second half of the program and be followed by several Turkish pieces, including “Uskudara Gider Iken” (“While Going to Uskudara”), which has been widely adapted by cultures across Eastern Europe, Southwest Asia and North Africa.
Acclaimed guest artists will join the ensemble, including Ishmael on qanun (zither), Fathi Aljarrah on kamanja (violin), Rafid Yalda on nay (reed flute), and Faisal Zedan on riqq (tambourine), daff (frame drum) and darabukka (goblet drum).
Celebrated composers, poets and artists to be represented on the program include Abd al-Mun`im Arafah, Adham Afandi, Amr Diab, Bayram al-Tunisi, Fairuz, Mulla ʻUthman al-Mawsili, Nasser Al Mizdawi, the Rahbani Brothers, Riyad al-Sunbati, Tanburi Cemil Bey, Umm Kulthum, and Zakariya Ahmad.
San Luis Obispo dance director Jenna Mitchell will lead the dance troupe in the performance of original choreography that dialogues with the music.
The Arab Music Ensemble is an orchestra and choir with vocal and instrumental soloists and with a membership that represents many majors on campus and professions off campus.
Tickets ($17 and $22 general, $12 students)
Cal Poly Arab Music Ensemble Spring Concert
Saturday, May 31, 2025
7:30 p.m., Spanos Theatre
Tickets ($22 general, $12 students)