The Middle East and Central Asia Music Forum has been running since 2007 and is open to researchers, students and anyone interested in the music and culture of the region.

In the spirit of fostering dialogue and interdisciplinarity, we hope that the issues discussed at the forum will be of interest to a broad audience, including musicologists, ethnomusicologists and other researchers in the arts, humanities and social sciences. In addition, we welcome those working on other aspects of Middle Eastern and Central Asian culture broadly speaking (dance, visual arts, media, film, literature, etc).

The forum is convened by Professor Laudan Nooshin from City, University of London and Professor Rachel Harris from SOAS, University of London.

Schedule

PART 1 – 11:00 to 14:30, online (Zoom)

Chair: Vanessa Paloma Elbaz (University of Cambridge)

11:00 – 11:40: Abigail Wood (University of Haifa): ‘“Ordinary” musicians? Discourses of Prestige and Musicianship among Palestinian Arab Wedding Musicians in the Galilee Region’

11.45 – 12.30: Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey (University of Sheffield) and Mohsen Saifi (Kabul University): ‘The Orchestras of Afghanistan’

Break

Chair: Rachel Harris (SOAS)

13:00 – 13:40: Lauren Braithwaite (University of Oxford): ‘Musical Diplomacy in Kabul’s “Green Zone”’

13:45 – 14:30: Payam Yousefi (Harvard University): ‘Awakened Hearts in Europe: Principles of Remembrance and Listening in the Contemporary Sufi Music of the MTO Shahmaghsoudi Zendeh Delan Ensemble’

PART 2 – 15:30 to 20:30 in person (Music Department, City, University of London, College Building, St John Street, London EC1V 4BP)

15:30 – 18:00: Room AG09 (ground floor, College Building). Film Screening, followed by Q&A with filmmaker Richard K. Wolf (Harvard University): Two Poets and a River. 

19:00 – 20:30: Performance Space (lower ground floor, College Building). Concert performance by the London Silk Road Collective.