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The National Arab Orchestra… Focusing on Arts to Reveal the Human Side of Life
Writing about music is hard. In other words, how can you transform musical notes and tones into words and sentences? How can you feel the effect music has on your mind and body if you are reading long paragraphs of information? That’s the dilemma I was going through while writing this article on the National Arab Orchestra. So, before reading the next few lines, I urge you to listen to this piece of music called Nay and Percussion Solos, as well as this one named Oud Taqsim.
The National Arab Orchestra was founded in 2009 by Michael Ibrahim, who was born in the US to an Antiochian (Greek) Orthodox Syrian family. The Orchestra was originally composed of a takht, a small chamber music group comprised of ‘oud (Arab lute), qanun (Arab zither), violin, nay (Arab reed flute), and riqq (Arab tambourine). The Orchestra seeks to bring the world music “through education and performance with an emphasis on preserving the musical traditions of the Arab world,” according to their YouTube page.
Speaking to Arab America, Michael Ibrahim stressed on the fact that this group was formed mainly to establish a full time Arab music institution in the country, in order to have an orchestra that performs regularly.
“The plight with Arabs is that we don’t care about the arts, and we put no emphasis on culture and heritage. So, we are trying to change that with music,” says Ibrahim.
“The reason why we support the arts is because it shows a human face to people, but if we choose to focus on other aspects, such as politics and religion, we are negating the emotional and humanistic aspect of the whole society, which takes away the ability to communicate with other people,” adds Ibrahim.
The National Arab Orchestra works also with students at the Detroit School of Arts, through a program called “The After School Program for Band, Orchestra, and Vocal Students”. A choir comprised of 60 kids was formed, as well as an instrumental group of 12 musicians performing with the orchestra.
“What we do with our genre of music; Arabic music, is to share it with these kids at school, so that they will have some experience with Arab culture here in Detroit,” says Ibrahim.
The National Arab Orchestra will perform a concert this Friday, May 8, at the Masonic Temple in Detroit. It will feature vocalists Usama Baalbaki and Ghada Derbas, as well as Salah Kurdi, who is an internationally renowned composer and vocalist and African American vocalist Lydia Lyon.
Samya Ayish Contributing Writer Arab America