[NEohioPAL]Halim El-Dabh 4,084th Birthday Celebration

[jeff]

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Greetings,

WHO:  Standing Rock Cultural Arts

WHAT:  Halim El-Dabh 4,084th Birthday Party
-Performance by the Kent Community Rumba Society

WHEN:  Friday,  March 4th, 2005  7pm-9:30pm

WHERE:  Club Khameleon  626 N. Water St., Kent
(formerly The Stuffed Mushroom on the corner of N. Water St. and Crain Ave.
330-673-6606)

COST:  Free=20
(donations to support SRCA and The Rumba Society gladly accepted)

CONTACT:  Jeff @ 330-673-4970

www.standingrock.net for updates

Standing Rock Cultural Arts is proud to celebrate Halim El-Dabh=B9s  4,084th
Birthday.  Halim is an esteemed professor emeritus at Kent State
University=B9s Main Campus.

This will be our fourth year of hosting the celebration and promises to be
an incredible event.  The Kent Community Rumba Society, an African Drum
Group led by former El-Dabh Student, Brian Klemp, has agreed to perform for
the second year in a row.

This year, the Rumba Society consists of 50 DRUMMERS, and they=B9ll be showin=
g
off new instruments recently imported from a West African village.

Previously, the North Water Street Gallery had hosted the celebration.
However, due to the growth in size of the Drum Group, and the generosity of
The Club Khameleon, we decided to move it a couple blocks down the street.
We hope you can join us for the fun!


BIOGRAPHY:

Halim El-Dabh=20
(b. Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh, Cairo, 4 March 1921)

Composer, performer, ethnomusicologist, and educator Halim El-Dabh is
internationally regarded as Egypt's foremost living composer of classical
music, and one of the major composers of the twentieth century.  His
numerous musical and dramatic works have been performed throughout Africa,
Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

Among his compositions are eleven operas, four symphonies, numerous ballets=
,
concertos, and orchestral pieces, works for band and chorus, film scores,
incidental music for plays;  chamber, electronic, rock and jazz works,
pieces for young performers, and pieces for various combinations of African=
,
Asian, and Western instruments.

His extensive ethnomusicological researches, conducted on
several continents, have led to unique creative syntheses in his works,
which, while utilizing contemporary compositional techniques and new system=
s
of notation, are frequently imbued with Near Eastern, African, or ancient
Egyptian aesthetics.

Born into a musical family in Cairo, El-Dabh studied piano and derabucca
(goblet-shaped ceramic drum), and began composing at an early age.  Althoug=
h
trained for a career as an agricultural engineer, his musical talent and
immersion in Egypt's cosmopolitan musical life (including village drumming
and local festivals, Arabic and European classical music, and the jazz club=
s
of Alexandria) increasingly led him toward a life in music.  An early
introduction to contemporary music came in 1932, when the young El-Dabh was
able to meet the composers B=E9la Bart=F3k and Paul Hindemith at an
international music conference organized by King Fuad in Cairo.  By 1949
El-Dabh had gained such notoriety for his avant-garde compositions and pian=
o
playing--among both the general public and the royal family--that the
cultural attach=E9s of various nations began to invite him to pursue further
musical studies in their countries.  El-Dabh chose to apply to study music
in the United States, and was one of only seven Egyptians (out of 500
applicants) to receive a Fulbright grant in that year.

Arriving in the United States in the summer of 1950 (and later acquiring
U.S. citizenship), El-Dabh traveled to the Aspen Music Center in Colorado,
where he met and assisted Igor Stravinsky.  After researching Native
American music in New Mexico, he began studies with Aaron Copland and Irvin=
g
Fine at the Berkshire Music Center in Massachusetts.  Later, in New York's
vibrant musical scene, he developed close associations with many prominent
and like-minded figures in twentieth-century music, including Henry Cowell,
John Cage, Alan Hovhaness, Leonard Bernstein, Edgard Var=E8se, Otto Luening,
Vladimir Ussachevsky, Ernst Křenek, and Luigi Dallapiccola.  During th=
e
1950s and =9160s, El-Dabh was grouped with fellow composers Hovhaness, Lou
Harrison, Colin McPhee, Paul Bowles, and Peggy Glanville-Hicks, under the
rubric  =B3Les Six d=92Orient=B2 (the term coined by Glanville-Hicks),
representing the vanguard of contemporary composers writing music inspired
by musics of the East.

Having also achieved renown for his virtuoso derabucca playing, in 1958
El-Dabh played the solo part in the premiere of his Fantasia-Tahmeel (for
derabucca and strings), with the American Symphony Orchestra under Leopold
Stokowski.  Also in 1958, he began working closely with the great American
choreographer Martha Graham, composing the epic opera-ballet Clytemnestra
(1958), which is considered Graham=92s masterpiece; he eventually composed
three more ballet scores for her.  El-Dabh=92s orchestral/choral score for th=
e
light show at the pyramids of Giza has been played there each evening since
1961, and is probably his most frequently heard work.  His Opera Flies
(1971) is the only opera to have been composed on the theme of the Kent
State tragedy of May 1970.

In addition to his compositional activity, El-Dabh has also conducted
musical field research and recording throughout Egypt and Ethiopia, as well
as in Eritrea, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zaire, Central African
Republic, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Morocco,
Greece, Macedonia, Uzbekistan, Brazil, Mexico, and Jamaica.  He has also
studied the Native American cultures of the American Southwest and the
African American cultures of the southeastern U.S.
El-Dabh is also considered an expert on the subject of traditional Egyptian
and African puppetry, and has helped to present a number of such puppetry
troupes in the United States.  While in Ethiopia (1962-64), he formed the
Orchestra Ethiopia, the first pan-Ethiopian performing group.

In his works, El-Dabh frequently draws on his Egyptian heritage, as in
Mekta' in the Art of Kita' (1955), The Eye of Horus (1967), Ptahmose and th=
e
Magic Spell (1972), Ramesses the Great (Symphony no. 9) (1987), and many
others.  He has created new systems of notation for the derabucca, and has
revived interest in ancient Egyptian language and musical notation.  Many o=
f
his works from the 1960s on are also heavily influenced by West African
traditional musics, such as Black Epic (1968) and Kyrie for the Bishop of
Ghana (1968), and still other works bear the influences of the musics of
Ethiopia, Brazil, India, China, and other nations.

Also a pioneer in the field of electronic music, El-Dabh began early sonic
experiments with wire recorders at the Middle East Radio Station of Cairo i=
n
1944.  In 1959 he was among the first group of composers to be invited to
work at the famed Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York,
where he created a number of significant works.  His Leiyla and the Poet
(1959-61), recorded for Columbia Masterworks in 1964, is considered a
classic of the genre.  A long-awaited CD compilation of many of these
pioneering electronic works, entitled Crossing Into the Electric Magnetic,
was released in 2001 by Without Fear Recordings.

El-Dabh's recent works include the ballet score In the Valley of the Nile
(1999), composed for the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Company; the piano
concerto Surrr-Rah (2000), written for pianist Tuyen Tonnu; and Og=FAn:  Let
Him, Let Her Have the Iron (2001), for soprano and chamber ensemble.  His
most recent project, the opera/theater piece Blue Sky Transmission:  A
Tibetan Book of the Dead, was presented in September 2002 in Cleveland, Ohi=
o
and in New York.


El-Dabh has served on the faculty of Kent State University's School of Musi=
c
since 1969, and has also taught at Haile Selassie I University in Ethiopia
(1962-64) and Howard University in Washington, D.C. (1966-69)  He is one of
only eight Kent State University faculty members to hold the title of
University Professor, Kent State's highest faculty distinction, and is a
recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award (1988).  Retiring in 1991,
Emeritus Professor El-Dabh continues to teach and compose prolifically, in
addition to conducting workshops for children.  Presently, El-Dabh is an
adjunct professor at Kent State University's Department of Pan-African
Studies, where he teaches a course entitled African Cultural Expression.  I=
n
this course, students are immersed in and participate in a holistic
experience of music, art, song, dance, and drama as it is found in the
environment of a pristine African village (which El-Dabh experienced during
his years of living in villages while traveling throughout Africa).

El-Dabh's music is published by C. F. Peters, and his works have been
recorded by the Columbia Masterworks, Folkways, Egyptian Ministry of Cultur=
e
and National Guidance, Auricular, Pointless Music, Luna Bisonte, Zentrum f=FC=
r
Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, NCG, Without Fear, Tedium House
(Bananafish), Association for Consciousness Exploration, and Innova labels.
There are entries on El-Dabh in nearly all major musical reference works,
and his work is discussed in books by Akin Euba, Adel Kamel, Gardner Read,
and others.  The first-ever biography of the composer, The Musical World of
Halim El-Dabh, by Kent State University professor Denise A. Seachrist, was
released by the Kent State University Press in April 2003.

El-Dabh holds degrees from Cairo University, the New England Conservatory o=
f
Music, and Brandeis University.  He has served as a cultural and
ethnomusicological consultant to the Smithsonian Institution=92s Folklife
Program (1974-1981), and his numerous grants and awards include two
Guggenheim Fellowships (1959-60 and 1961-62), two Fulbright Fellowships
(1950 and 1967), two Rockefeller Fellowships (1961 and 2001), the Cleveland
Arts Prize (1990), a Meet-the-Composer grant (1999), and an Ohio Arts
Council grant (2000).  In May 2001 he received an honorary doctorate from
Kent State University.  In 2001, the composer celebrated his eightieth
birthday with a festival of his music, which included more than 15 concerts
and lectures, both in the U.S. and around the world.  In March 2002 he was
invited to celebrate his eighty-first birthday with a series of four
concerts of his music at the recently reconstructed Bibliotheca Alexandrina
(Library of Alexandria) in Alexandria, Egypt.

-- David Badagnani


Peace to you.  Long live Song and Dance!  Forget the power struggles and th=
e
oil mongers.  Looooooove Rules.


Thank you for supporting the Arts,

Jeff Ingram/Executive Director
Standing Rock Cultural Arts
257 N. Water St.
Kent, OH 44240
330-673-4970
info at standingrock.net


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<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Halim El-Dabh 4,084th Birthday Celebration</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<FONT FACE=3D"Helvetica"><H2>Greetings,<BR>
<BR>
WHO:  Standing Rock Cultural Arts<BR>
<BR>
</H2><FONT SIZE=3D"5"><B>WHAT:  Halim El-Dabh 4,084th Birthday Party<BR>
</B></FONT><H2>-Performance by the Kent Community Rumba Society<BR>
<BR>
WHEN:  Friday,  March 4th, 2005  7pm-9:30pm<BR>
<BR>
</H2><FONT SIZE=3D"5"><B>WHERE:  Club Khameleon  626 N. Water St., =
Kent<BR>
</B></FONT><B>(formerly The Stuffed Mushroom on the corner of N. Water St. =
and Crain Ave.  330-673-6606)<BR>
</B><H2><BR>
COST:  Free <BR>
</H2><B>(donations to support SRCA and The Rumba Society gladly accepted)<B=
R>
</B><H2><BR>
CONTACT:  Jeff @ 330-673-4970<BR>
<BR>
</H2><FONT SIZE=3D"4"><B>www.standingrock.net for updates<BR>
</B></FONT><H3><BR>
</H3><FONT SIZE=3D"4"><B>Standing Rock Cultural Arts is proud to celebrate Ha=
lim El-Dabh=B9s  4,084th Birthday.  Halim is an esteemed professor e=
meritus at Kent State University=B9s Main Campus. <BR>
</B></FONT><H3><BR>
</H3><FONT SIZE=3D"4"><B>This will be our fourth year of hosting the celebrat=
ion and promises to be an incredible event.  The Kent Community Rumba S=
ociety, an African Drum Group led by former El-Dabh Student, Brian Klemp, ha=
s agreed to perform for the second year in a row.<BR>
</B></FONT><H3><BR>
This year, the Rumba Society consists of 50 DRUMMERS, and they=B9ll be showin=
g off new instruments recently imported from a West African village.  <=
BR>
<BR>
</H3><FONT SIZE=3D"4"><B>Previously, the North Water Street Gallery had hoste=
d the celebration.  However, due to the growth in size of the Drum Grou=
p, and the generosity of The Club Khameleon, we decided to move it a couple =
blocks down the street.  We hope you can join us for the fun!<BR>
</B></FONT><H3><BR>
</H3></FONT><FONT FACE=3D"Times New Roman"><B><BR>
BIOGRAPHY:<BR>
<BR>
Halim El-Dabh <BR>
(b. Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh, Cairo, 4 March 1921)<BR>
<BR>
Composer, performer, ethnomusicologist, and educator Halim El-Dabh is <BR>
internationally regarded as Egypt's foremost living composer of classical <=
BR>
music, and one of the major composers of the twentieth century.  His <=
BR>
numerous musical and dramatic works have been performed throughout Africa, =
Asia, Europe, and the Americas.<BR>
<BR>
Among his compositions are eleven operas, four symphonies, numerous ballets=
, concertos, and orchestral pieces, works for band and chorus, film scores, =
incidental music for plays;  chamber, electronic, rock and jazz works, =
pieces for young performers, and pieces for various combinations of African,=
 Asian, and Western instruments.<BR>
<BR>
His extensive ethnomusicological researches, conducted on <BR>
several continents, have led to unique creative syntheses in his works, <BR=
>
which, while utilizing contemporary compositional techniques and new system=
s of notation, are frequently imbued with Near Eastern, African, or ancient =
Egyptian aesthetics.<BR>
<BR>
Born into a musical family in Cairo, El-Dabh studied piano and derabucca <B=
R>
(goblet-shaped ceramic drum), and began composing at an early age.  Al=
though trained for a career as an agricultural engineer, his musical talent =
and immersion in Egypt's cosmopolitan musical life (including village drummi=
ng and local festivals, Arabic and European classical music, and the jazz cl=
ubs of Alexandria) increasingly led him toward a life in music.  An ear=
ly introduction to contemporary music came in 1932, when the young El-Dabh w=
as able to meet the composers B=E9la Bart=F3k and Paul Hindemith at an <BR>
international music conference organized by King Fuad in Cairo.  By 19=
49 <BR>
El-Dabh had gained such notoriety for his avant-garde compositions and pian=
o playing--among both the general public and the royal family--that the cult=
ural attach=E9s of various nations began to invite him to pursue further music=
al studies in their countries.  El-Dabh chose to apply to study music i=
n the United States, and was one of only seven Egyptians (out of 500 applica=
nts) to receive a Fulbright grant in that year.<BR>
<BR>
Arriving in the United States in the summer of 1950 (and later acquiring <B=
R>
U.S. citizenship), El-Dabh traveled to the Aspen Music Center in Colorado, =
<BR>
where he met and assisted Igor Stravinsky.  After researching Native <=
BR>
American music in New Mexico, he began studies with Aaron Copland and Irvin=
g  Fine at the Berkshire Music Center in Massachusetts.  Later, in=
 New York's vibrant musical scene, he developed close associations with many=
 prominent and like-minded figures in twentieth-century music, including Hen=
ry Cowell, John Cage, Alan Hovhaness, Leonard Bernstein, Edgard Var=E8se, Otto=
 Luening, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Ernst K&#345;enek, and Luigi Dallapiccol=
a.  During the 1950s and =9160s, El-Dabh was grouped with fellow composer=
s Hovhaness, Lou Harrison, Colin McPhee, Paul Bowles, and Peggy Glanville-Hi=
cks, under the rubric  =B3Les Six d=92Orient=B2 (the term coined by Glanville=
-Hicks), representing the vanguard of contemporary composers writing music i=
nspired by musics of the East.<BR>
<BR>
Having also achieved renown for his virtuoso derabucca playing, in 1958 <BR=
>
El-Dabh played the solo part in the premiere of his Fantasia-Tahmeel (for <=
BR>
derabucca and strings), with the American Symphony Orchestra under Leopold =
Stokowski.  Also in 1958, he began working closely with the great Ameri=
can choreographer Martha Graham, composing the epic opera-ballet Clytemnestr=
a (1958), which is considered Graham=92s masterpiece; he eventually composed t=
hree more ballet scores for her.  El-Dabh=92s orchestral/choral score for=
 the light show at the pyramids of Giza has been played there each evening s=
ince 1961, and is probably his most frequently heard work.  His Opera F=
lies (1971) is the only opera to have been composed on the theme of the Kent=
 State tragedy of May 1970.<BR>
<BR>
In addition to his compositional activity, El-Dabh has also conducted <BR>
musical field research and recording throughout Egypt and Ethiopia, as well=
 <BR>
as in Eritrea, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zaire, Central African <BR>
Republic, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Morocco, <B=
R>
Greece, Macedonia, Uzbekistan, Brazil, Mexico, and Jamaica.  He has al=
so <BR>
studied the Native American cultures of the American Southwest and the <BR>
African American cultures of the southeastern U.S.<BR>
El-Dabh is also considered an expert on the subject of traditional Egyptian=
 and African puppetry, and has helped to present a number of such puppetry t=
roupes in the United States.  While in Ethiopia (1962-64), he formed th=
e Orchestra Ethiopia, the first pan-Ethiopian performing group.<BR>
<BR>
In his works, El-Dabh frequently draws on his Egyptian heritage, as in <BR>
Mekta' in the Art of Kita' (1955), The Eye of Horus (1967), Ptahmose and th=
e <BR>
Magic Spell (1972), Ramesses the Great (Symphony no. 9) (1987), and many <B=
R>
others.  He has created new systems of notation for the derabucca, and=
 has <BR>
revived interest in ancient Egyptian language and musical notation.  M=
any of <BR>
his works from the 1960s on are also heavily influenced by West African <BR=
>
traditional musics, such as Black Epic (1968) and Kyrie for the Bishop of <=
BR>
Ghana (1968), and still other works bear the influences of the musics of <B=
R>
Ethiopia, Brazil, India, China, and other nations.<BR>
<BR>
Also a pioneer in the field of electronic music, El-Dabh began early sonic =
<BR>
experiments with wire recorders at the Middle East Radio Station of Cairo i=
n <BR>
1944.  In 1959 he was among the first group of composers to be invited=
 to <BR>
work at the famed Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York, <=
BR>
where he created a number of significant works.  His Leiyla and the Po=
et <BR>
(1959-61), recorded for Columbia Masterworks in 1964, is considered a <BR>
classic of the genre.  A long-awaited CD compilation of many of these =
<BR>
pioneering electronic works, entitled Crossing Into the Electric Magnetic, =
<BR>
was released in 2001 by Without Fear Recordings.<BR>
<BR>
El-Dabh's recent works include the ballet score In the Valley of the Nile <=
BR>
(1999), composed for the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Company; the piano <BR>
concerto Surrr-Rah (2000), written for pianist Tuyen Tonnu; and Og=FAn: &nbsp=
;Let <BR>
Him, Let Her Have the Iron (2001), for soprano and chamber ensemble.  =
His <BR>
most recent project, the opera/theater piece Blue Sky Transmission:  A=
 <BR>
Tibetan Book of the Dead, was presented in September 2002 in Cleveland, Ohi=
o and in New York.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
El-Dabh has served on the faculty of Kent State University's School of Musi=
c <BR>
since 1969, and has also taught at Haile Selassie I University in Ethiopia =
<BR>
(1962-64) and Howard University in Washington, D.C. (1966-69)  He is o=
ne of <BR>
only eight Kent State University faculty members to hold the title of <BR>
University Professor, Kent State's highest faculty distinction, and is a <B=
R>
recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award (1988).  Retiring in 199=
1, <BR>
Emeritus Professor El-Dabh continues to teach and compose prolifically, in =
<BR>
addition to conducting workshops for children.  Presently, El-Dabh is =
an <BR>
adjunct professor at Kent State University's Department of Pan-African <BR>
Studies, where he teaches a course entitled African Cultural Expression. &n=
bsp;In <BR>
this course, students are immersed in and participate in a holistic <BR>
experience of music, art, song, dance, and drama as it is found in the <BR>
environment of a pristine African village (which El-Dabh experienced during=
 <BR>
his years of living in villages while traveling throughout Africa).<BR>
<BR>
El-Dabh's music is published by C. F. Peters, and his works have been <BR>
recorded by the Columbia Masterworks, Folkways, Egyptian Ministry of Cultur=
e and National Guidance, Auricular, Pointless Music, Luna Bisonte, Zentrum f=
=FCr Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, NCG, Without Fear, Tedium House (B=
ananafish), Association for Consciousness Exploration, and Innova labels. &n=
bsp;There are entries on El-Dabh in nearly all major musical reference works=
, and his work is discussed in books by Akin Euba, Adel Kamel, Gardner Read,=
 and others.  The first-ever biography of the composer, The Musical Wor=
ld of Halim El-Dabh, by Kent State University professor Denise A. Seachrist,=
 was released by the Kent State University Press in April 2003.<BR>
<BR>
El-Dabh holds degrees from Cairo University, the New England Conservatory o=
f Music, and Brandeis University.  He has served as a cultural and <BR>
ethnomusicological consultant to the Smithsonian Institution=92s Folklife <BR=
>
Program (1974-1981), and his numerous grants and awards include two <BR>
Guggenheim Fellowships (1959-60 and 1961-62), two Fulbright Fellowships <BR=
>
(1950 and 1967), two Rockefeller Fellowships (1961 and 2001), the Cleveland=
 <BR>
Arts Prize (1990), a Meet-the-Composer grant (1999), and an Ohio Arts <BR>
Council grant (2000).  In May 2001 he received an honorary doctorate f=
rom <BR>
Kent State University.  In 2001, the composer celebrated his eightieth=
 <BR>
birthday with a festival of his music, which included more than 15 concerts=
 <BR>
and lectures, both in the U.S. and around the world.  In March 2002 he=
 was <BR>
invited to celebrate his eighty-first birthday with a series of four <BR>
concerts of his music at the recently reconstructed Bibliotheca Alexandrina=
 <BR>
(Library of Alexandria) in Alexandria, Egypt.<BR>
<BR>
-- David Badagnani<BR>
<BR>
</B><H2><BR>
</H2><FONT SIZE=3D"5"><B>Peace to you.  Long live Song and Dance!  =
Forget the power struggles and the oil mongers.  Looooooove Rules.<BR>
</B></FONT><B><BR>
<BR>
</B></FONT><FONT FACE=3D"Helvetica"><H3>Thank you for supporting the Arts,<BR=
>
<BR>
</H3><FONT SIZE=3D"4"><B>Jeff Ingram/Executive Director<BR>
</B></FONT><H3>Standing Rock Cultural Arts<BR>
257 N. Water St.<BR>
Kent, OH 44240<BR>
330-673-4970<BR>
</H3><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF"><FONT SIZE=3D"4"><B><U>info at standingrock.net</U></=
B></FONT></FONT><BR>
</FONT>
</BODY>
</HTML>


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