Advance Program Notes Rajab Suleiman & Kithara Wednesday, September 14, 2016, 7:30 PM These Advance Program Notes are provided online for our patrons who like to read about performances ahead of time. Printed programs will be provided to patrons at the performances. Programs are subject to change. Rajab Suleiman & Kithara Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania U.S. debut tour as part of Center Stage Rajab Suleiman, leader, qanun, and accordion Saada Nassor, vocals and percussion Makame Faki, oud and vocals Mohamed Hassan, accordion and kidumbak Daud Shadhill, double bass, electric bass, and sanduku Foum Faki, dumbak, bongos, ngoma, and kidumbak Amina Yusuf, percussion, dancer, and backing vocals Malitina Hassan, percussion, dancer, and backing vocals Rajab Suleiman & Kithara Center Stage Tour Staff Ariana Hellerman, company manager Robert W. Henderson, junior technical and production coordinator
Program Notes Taarab music has defined Zanzibar s aural landscape for over a century, renowned for its lush mix of Arabic and western instruments, diva-worthy vocalizations, and Swahili lyrics. The venerable and syncretic form is ambitiously renewed by Rajab Suleiman & Kithara. This lean and nimble group has uncovered the form s essential origins and is creating new musical conversations with its East African neighbors, historic Arabic cultural partners, and allied Western forms. In the form s heyday, taarab orchestras could include 60 or more musicians, such as violinists, singers, and qanun, accordion, and oud players. During the last 20 years synthesizers and drum machines displaced musicians. Virtuosity and audiences were lost. To revive the form s striking colors, Suleiman and a few younger players broke off from the venerable Culture Music Club in 2012 to form Kithara, a pocket orchestra capturing all the sonic specialties of acoustic taarab in an original, dynamic way. In uniting older and younger generations, Kithara s musicians are reckoning passionately with the music s Arabic and Ottoman underpinnings, calling out influences from Cuba to India and welcoming Zanzibar s ngoma folk rhythms and stories. Suleiman started out as an accordion player but was fascinated by the qanun and the central role the zither played in taarab. In the beginning when I started to play and to learn the instrument, I almost gave up, recalls Suleiman. It was just so difficult to master, but when I got to go to Egypt to study, I really fell in love with it and wanted to master all the intricacies. I was the youngest player ever to pick it up and the first to get a chance to study more outside the country. His adventuresome approach eventually sparked a renewed sound for the music, which shows Zanzibar s striking blend of Arabic and southern African cultures. An age-old stopover on trade routes between several continents, the island s music continues to absorb new influences. I formed my own group because I needed to do music in a way different from the regular taarab ensembles in Zanzibar, he reflects. The clubs that play the music have many members, but they often go to the club as an evening pastime. It is a traditional way to do taarab in Zanzibar, but there is little interest in change or innovation, and now the local audiences completely ignore the old taarab because of this. The eight-member ensemble explores the subtle beauty of maqam, the system of modes and ornaments that drives Arab classical music, and pairs it with interweaving rhythms that are distinctly African. Sensual dance rhythms unfold to startling virtuosity on instruments like the qanun, oud, violin, and accordion. Earthy yet nimble vocals by masters like Makame Faki and up-and-coming singers like Saada Nassar touch delicately on life s most pressing, universal matters. We use local ngoma traditions, the melodies and rhythms, and play them on taarab instruments, most of which have come from elsewhere, though we have also made our own instruments like the sanduku, a kind of bass made from a wooden tea chest with an attached string, Suleiman says. Add to that the words, which are arranged in a very poetic way with strict numbers of syllables and rhymes. We talk about life in song by alluding to something indirectly, to make our listeners ponder the meaning. Zanzibar is an island where many people have come to live and trade for many centuries, so our music is a mix of African, Arab, Indian, and also European influences, Suleiman muses. It s not all that different from America, in that way. In the U.S., many cultures have come together, and the music that America is famous for now around the world is a mix of the different cultures coming together in one place. Rajab Suleiman & Kithara will add their syncretic voices to this mix during the band s month-long U.S. debut tour that begins at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and continues to Bucknell University (Pennsylvania), Virginia Tech, and the Madison (Wisconsin) and Chicago World Music Festivals, before ending at New Mexico s Globalquerque.
About Center Stage CENTER STAGE Center Stage invites performing artists from select countries overseas to the United States to perform and conduct engagement activities. Now in its third edition, five acclaimed contemporary music and theatre ensembles from Algeria and Tanzania will travel to the U.S. between July and November 2016 and two bands from Pakistan will tour in the spring of 2017. Each group undertakes independent, month-long tours around the country to perform, interact, begin meaningful dialogues with Americans and share these experiences with friends and fans at home. Center Stage artists perform and engage with audiences onstage and online, providing positive and popular avenues of engagement to build mutual understanding through shared culture and values. Each tour includes a range of community engagement activities, such as performances, workshops, discussions, artist-to-artist exchanges, and community gatherings. To date 17 ensembles from Haiti, Indonesia, Morocco, Pakistan, and Vietnam have toured the United States, focusing on interactive engagements in diverse cities and towns across the country. Center Stage is a public diplomacy initiative of the U.S. Department of State s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts in cooperation with the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations, with support from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art. Center Stage Pakistan is made possible by the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. General management is provided by Lisa Booth Management, Inc. Keep up with Center Stage and find additional information at www.centerstageus.org, on Facebook at www. facebook.com/centerstagepage, and on Twitter at @CenterStageUS. Rajab Suleiman & Kithara are represented by Werner Graebner, Jahazi-Media. For more information, email info@jahazimedia.com or visit www.jahazi-media.com. Thanks for joining us. Tell us about your Center Stage experience in this short survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ CS3AudienceSurvey.
Engagement Events Monday, September 12, 2016 WORKSHOP: KITHARA AND ITRAAB During the ensemble s visit to Blacksburg, Kithara will lead a workshop with members of Itraab, a local Arabic music ensemble composed of Virginia Tech students, faculty, staff, and community members. Translated as delectation or diversion by music, Itraab was founded in 2014 as a component of the Moss Arts Center s Islamic Worlds Festival (2015). The ensemble is led by ethnomusicologist Anne Elise Thomas, Ph.D., and supported by the Moss Arts Center. For more information or to join the group, email Jon at rjginn@vt.edu. Special thanks to Anne Elise Thomas
In the Galleries Artist Spotlight: Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle In a suite of collage and mixed media works on paper, wood panel, and photographs, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle explores what she describes as the historical present, examining the perception of the black woman as it has been distorted and warped, both in the West African Colonial past and in the present. Her almost fluid and wildly imaginative renderings, with India ink and acrylic paint on paper and photographs, verge into mythic territory while delving into the history of racism, its impact on female identity, and its consequences in our world. Hinkle lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Works by Hinkle will remain on view in the Francis T. Eck Exhibition Corridor through November 28, 2016. Join us! ARTIST TALK: KENYATTA A.C. HINKLE Sunday, September 18, 2016, 6:30 PM Merryman Family Learning Studio, Moss Arts Center Room 253 FALL EXHIBITIONS Susan Jamison, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Amy Cutler, and Lynn Hershman Leeson September 1-December 10, 2016 All galleries GALLERY HOURS Tuesday-Friday, 10 AM-5:30 PM Saturday, 10 AM-4 PM Class and group visits always welcome, tours available Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle Tituba Becomes the Night, 2014 India ink, graphite, and charcoal on Arches Cover paper 54 ½ x 44 ½ inches Image courtesy of the artist and Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco/New York