Author: Daniel Meyers

On May 19, the Syrian Music Preservation Initiative will celebrate its 5th anniversary at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall with a presentation of works by Syrian composers, Love and Loss: Classical Music of Syria.

The one-night-only event begins at 8 p.m. featuring SMPI’s Takht al-Nagham (an Arab chamber music ensemble), led by Artistic Director Samer Ali. This group includes instruments traditional to the Takht such as the oud (Arab lute), qanun (Arab zither), and riq (tambourine).

The 5th-anniversary celebration will include works by Mahmood Aijan, Wanees Wartanian, Majdi al-’Aqili, Ramez Khaskiyya, Khalil Haj Hussein, and Ali, and traditional works by other Syrian composers. Joining Ali (violin) on stage are Marissa Arciola Ali (bass), Brian Prunka (oud), John Murchison (qanun), Nezih Antakli (riq), Gideon Forbes (nay), Lubana Al Quntar (vocals), and Zahra al-Zubaidi, Erik Jönsson, Marwa Morgan, and Stefan Paolini in the choir.

The theme of love and loss is common throughout the classical Syrian repertoire and remains relevant to their reality today. We are dedicated to preserving and invigorating the diverse regional music traditions of Syria, and this performance will promote the musical heritage through both older, lesser-known works and contemporary pieces. In this way, we celebrate the past, present, and future of Syrian music.

Samer Ali

The show also features several musicians who were selected after an audition process, which was open to anyone from the community who wanted to perform with SMPI; the musicians include Syrian siblings of from Pennsylvania: Kyla (violin), Chris (qanun), and Makayl Manja (violin); as well as Amirah Ismail (violin), of Egyptian descent and from Washington, D.C., and Laith al-Attar (oud), of Iraqi descent and also from the DC area.

Founded in 2018, SMPI promotes and celebrates the diverse musical traditions of Syria through preservation, innovation, research, and education, including music and dance performances, classes, workshops, and seminars, as well as digital resources and recordings. SMPI is partly funded by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council.

Syrian Native Samer Ali is a physician, violinist, oudist, composer, and founder and artistic director of SMPI, and has led Takht al-Nagham, SMPI’s Arab chamber music ensemble, in New York at Roulette Intermedium; Florida at Miami Beach Bandshell; and Washington, DC at Kennedy Center. 

Marissa Arciola Ali is a bassist, strategist, and leader with a unique combination of artistic and business experience who has worked with a number of nonprofit organizations while playing with groups ranging from classical, to rock, and Middle Eastern music. As President of the SMPI board and member of Takht al-Nagham, she helps to move the organization forward by putting a focus on digital initiatives, prioritizing projects, and growing donation and fundraising prospects.

Damascus-born Lubana al-Quntar, considered one of the leading opera singers of the Arab world, has a repertoire that includes traditional Arabic, folk, and pop music. She completed her academic studies at the Royal College of Music in London and the Damascus Conservatory of Music and studied operatic performance at the Maastricht Academy of Music in Holland. She has appeared globally as an opera soloist and as a traditional Arab singer, and headed the opera department at the Damascus Conservatory where she taught opera and Arabic singing.

John Murchison is a Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist who performs in the worlds of pop and musical theater, jazz and avant-garde, and traditional music from the Middle East and Africa. Murchison is one of the most in-demand bassists for traditional Arabic music in the United States and also performs regularly on qanun, gimbri, oud, and percussion. He is a co-founder of Brooklyn Maqam, an organization dedicated to presenting, promoting, and building a community around Arabic music in the NYC area.

Zahra al-Zubaidi is a New York-based Iraqi vocalist who performs a wide range of Arabic styles, with a focus on Iraqi music. She has performed as a featured artist around the US, and as a guest/chorus with several internationally renowned artists such as Muhammad Qadri Dalal, Lubana AlQuntar, with Takht al-Nagham and other ensembles like Safaafir and Hamid al-Saadi. In 2021, she was awarded the City Artist Corps grant to showcase women’s voices and the Iraqi Maqam and recently performed at NYC’s historic Joe’s Pub for the 2022 Habibi Festival.

New York City-based percussionist Nezih Antakli has performed nationally in numerous venues such as the Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, as well as internationally on a variety of festivals around the world as well as on the Broadway Show “The Band’s Visit”. An alum of the University for the Arts in Rotterdam, Netherlands (CODARTS), he moved to the United States in 2007 and has been involved in the Middle Eastern and Balkan music scene in the wider New York City and Philadelphia area.

Marwa Morgan is a New York City-based Egyptian singer and journalist who grew up in Cairo surrounded by classical Egyptian music and started singing at an early age, before moving to the U.S. in 2015, where she has performed with several ensembles, including Takht al-Nagham, The Middle East Music Orchestra at Rutgers University among others.

Brooklyn-based vocalist Erik Jönsson began singing at a young age in his church’s choir in the Hudson Valley, and decades later, he is still singing in church as a member of Trinity Church Wall Street’s Downtown Voices. He has also sung as a member of that choir at Carnegie Hall with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) as part of the Mark Morris Dance Group’s production of L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, and Madison Square Garden in concert with Andrea Bocelli.

Tickets are now available for the 5th-anniversary celebration of the Syrian Music Preservation Initiative at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.