April 14th
7pm
Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th St.)
Please join us for a performance by Hamid Al-Saadi with Safaafir, featuring Hamid Al-Saadi, vocals; Amir ElSaffar, santur, vocals; Dena El Saffar, violin, joza, vocals; Tim Moore, percussion, vocals; Zahra Ali, vocals.
Marking 20 years since the US invasion of Iraq, this performance will celebrate the classical Iraqi Maqam of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul with world-renowned practitioners of the art. Maqam music developed over centuries; its melodies, rhythms, and poetry are a direct reflection of Iraq's rich geography and culture, past and present.
Tickets are free and open to the public! Snack packs with juice boxes and dates will be offered for Iftar.
featuring
Maqam scholar, singer, artist and writer, Hamid Al-Saadi learned the art of singing and performing the Iraqi maqam from the legendary Yusuf Omar (1918-1987); Omar's own teacher, Muhammed Al-Gubbenchi (1901-1989)—probably the most influential maqam reciter in history—said that he considered Al-Saadi to be the “ideal link to pass on the maqam to future generations.” Al-Saadi is also author of al-maqam wo buhoor al-angham, a comprehensive text on the Iraqi Maqam and its poetry.
Dena El Saffar is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, teacher and recording artist who has performed throughout the US as well as in the Middle East and Latin America. Born and raised in a musical family in Chicago, she learned about her Iraqi heritage through stories, music and recipes. While completing a Viola Performance degree at the IU Jacobs School of Music, she founded Salaam in order to focus on music of the Arab World. El Saffar plays several traditional Middle Eastern instruments – ‘oud, and joza – as well as violin and viola.
Composer, trumpeter, santur player, and vocalist Amir ElSaffar has been described as “uniquely poised to reconcile jazz and Arabic music,” (the Wire) and “one of the most promising figures in jazz today” (Chicago Tribune). He is a recipient of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and a 2018 US Artist Fellow, ElSaffar, and is an expert trumpeter with a classical background. Additionally, he is a purveyor of the centuries old, now endangered, Iraqi maqam tradition, which he performs actively as a vocalist and santur player.
Zahra Ali is a sociologist and Assistant Professor at Rutgers University-Newark, her research explores dynamics of women and gender, social and political movements, in relation to Islam(s), the Middle East, and contexts of war and conflict with a focus on contemporary Iraq. She is interested in empire, (racial) capitalism, (post)-coloniality, transnational feminisms as well as critical knowledge production and epistemologies. Ali is the author of Women and Gender in Iraq (Cambridge University Press, 2018), and co-author of Decolonial Pluriversalism (Rowman & Littlefield, Creolizing the Canon series, 2023 with Sonia Dayan-Herzbrun).
Tim Moore began performing with different groups early on, gaining experience in a variety of genres including jazz, blues, salsa and rock. In his quest to become a better, more diverse musician, he began learning rhythms and instruments from around the world, eventually bringing his focus to Middle Eastern percussion. Tim plays the dumbek, riqq, naqqarat, bendir, tabl and zanbur, as well as drum set, bass and guitar.