{"id":76419,"date":"2025-11-19T11:21:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T18:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=76419"},"modified":"2025-11-19T11:21:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T18:21:30","slug":"middle-east-ensemble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/middle-east-ensemble\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridging town and gown with Middle Eastern music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lillie Gordon<\/span><\/b> still remembers the first time she played Middle Eastern music, way back in her undergraduate years at the College of William & Mary. She learned about notes and scales that are rarely found in Western music. She played alongside instruments she\u2019d never seen before. And she learned to delight in the discomfort of improvising\u2014playing music that isn\u2019t written down on a page.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI had been playing violin since I was a little kid, but never like this,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those things where you crack open a door and you discover a whole other universe behind it. I realized how much I didn\u2019t know about music.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A couple of decades later, Gordon, now an NAU ethnomusicology instructor and an academic success coordinator and scholarship advisor in the Honors College, wanted to give others that same gift of giddy discovery\u2014so she created her own Middle East Ensemble right here in Flagstaff.<\/span><\/p>\n

Founded two years ago and already 20 strong, Gordon\u2019s ensemble of Lumberjacks and local residents explores the rich sonic culture of the Middle East and North Africa. The group\u2019s upcoming concert on Saturday, Nov. 22 at the Beaver Street Theater, \u201c<\/span>Songs of Longing<\/span><\/a>,\u201d will travel from Iran to Egypt to Saudi Arabia and beyond, with music about love, loss and laughter. The concert is part of the Interference Series, a lineup of genre-bending musical events across Flagstaff.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/a>
Founded two years ago, the Middle East Ensemble has grown to include 20 musicians.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe Middle East Ensemble adds a wealth of diversity to our local scene,\u201d said <\/span>Rob Wallace<\/span><\/b>, who directs the Interference Series, teaches music at NAU and plays in the ensemble. \u201cParticularly in times where the American public is not being encouraged to reach outward, this ensemble allows us to see the richness and diversity of transnational traditions that may just be part of the lives of your friends and neighbors.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gordon said it\u2019s a good bet some of the ensemble\u2019s members really <\/span>are<\/span><\/i> your friends and neighbors. Intent on building a bridge between town and gown, Gordon decided to make the ensemble open to all\u2014people on and off campus, people with and without musical experience, people who are fluent in Arabic or don\u2019t speak a word of it.\u202f<\/span><\/p>\n

Gordon makes concerts equally accessible to audiences by encouraging them to cheer or dance whenever they want. Between each song, she offers translations, summarizes the music\u2019s history and offers other cultural tidbits for context. She hopes breaking down barriers to entry will help break down cultural barriers, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen 9\/11 happened, I saw the backlash against Muslims and Arab Americans,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cMany of us aren\u2019t exposed to the Middle East beyond news about conflict and violence. When you\u2019re exposed to their sad songs, funny songs, love songs and children\u2019s songs, it makes you realize the full humanity of people in the Middle East more clearly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

From ballads to bangers<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Concertgoers can expect a mix of raucous \u201cbangers,\u201d playful ditties and ballads that\u2019ll \u201chit you in the feels.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAna fi Intizarak,\u201d a mammoth Egyptian hit in 1943, falls in the latter category. Channeling the <\/span>singing sensation Umm Kulthum<\/span><\/a>, senior NAU student <\/span>Teodora Morris <\/span><\/b>will play violin while crooning about a lost love and even experimenting with some improvisation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Four<\/a>
The ensemble includes people from the NAU and Flagstaff communities, both with and without musical experience.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been a violinist since I could talk, but improvising on violin was such a foreign concept to me,\u201d Morris said. \u201cBeing part of the Middle East Ensemble, I\u2019ve learned and grown so much, both as a person and as a violinist.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The ensemble hasn\u2019t just opened Morris\u2019s eyes to non-Western musical traditions. It\u2019s also expanded her social circle to include people outside NAU\u2014like Flagstaff resident Mohammed Alshalaby, who plans to perform an uplifting song from his native Saudi Arabia about the joy of spending just one night with loved ones who live far away. Gordon said Alshalaby will play the \u2018ud, a stringed instrument that\u2019s the ancestor of the lute.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gordon said the ensemble will also tackle a humorous song from the Sephardic Jewish tradition\u2014the tale of a seamstress who can\u2019t figure out how to use a sewing machine.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt must be from when the sewing machine was first invented,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s part of this category of silly in-the-house songs sung in a medieval Spanish language mixed with the modern language from wherever people in the Sephardic diaspora live now, whether it\u2019s Greece or Turkey or the Balkans. I think these songs were a way for people to retain a little connection with their ancestors.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gordon said whether you\u2019re of Middle Eastern descent, a music lover or just curious about culture, there\u2019s sure to be something enjoyable for you at \u201cSongs of Longing.\u201d\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wonderful about these concerts is that we\u2019re all learning,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cThere are no \u2018professionals\u2019 here; there are just performers, listeners and participants exploring these cultures and traditions together.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Songs of Longing: An evening with the NAU Middle East Ensemble<\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>When: Saturday, Nov. 22 at 7:30 p.m.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Where: Beaver Street Theater, 11 S. Beaver St.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Presented by: Kitt School of Music, Honors College and Interference Series<\/span>
\n<\/span>Tickets: $10 for students, $20 general admission. Purchase at the door.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/span><\/p>\n


\nJill Kimball | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-2282 | jill.kimball@nau.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lillie Gordon still remembers the first time she played Middle Eastern music, way back in her undergraduate years at the College of William & Mary. She learned about notes and scales that are rarely found in Western music. She played alongside instruments she\u2019d never seen before. And she learned to delight in the discomfort of…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":76425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happenings"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}