[NEohioPAL]Halim El-Dabh 86th birthday celebration

[Standing Rock Cultural Arts]

Greetings,

WHO: Standing Rock Cultural Arts is honored to present

WHAT: Celebration of Halim El-Dabh’s 4,086th Birthday!
-Halim is a professor emiritus at Kent State University
-performance by Kent African Drum Community

WHEN: Saturday, March 10 2007 7:30pm

WHERE: North Water Street Gallery 257 N. Water St., Kent

MORE INFO: 330-673-4970 or info at standingrock.net

HALIM’S WEBSITE: www.halimeldabh.com

Standing Rock Cultural Arts
257 N. Water St.
Kent, OH 44240
330-673-4970
www.standingrock.net

Halim continues to astound the world with his everlasting effervesence, 
avant garde compositions, and amazing vitality. Currently he is in 
Boston at the New England Conservatory where they are honoring him 
during a week long celebration of African Composers.

We are honored and privileged to celebrate his birthday here in Kent, 
Ohio, once again.

*There will be a special performance by The Kent African Drum Community, 
a group of children and adults who are studying traditional African 
rhythms with Brian Klemp, a former KSU African Ensemble member.

Halim El-Dabh
(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 and electronic works, music 
for jazz and rock band, works for young performers, and pieces for 
various combinations of African, Asian, and Western instruments.

Halim El-Dabh
(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 and electronic works, music 
for jazz and rock band, works 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 systems 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. 
Although 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 clubs 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 Béla Bartók 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 piano playing--among both the general 
public and the royal family--that the cultural attachés 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 Irving 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 Varèse, Otto Luening, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Ernst K_enek, and 
Luigi Dallapiccola. During the 1950s and ‘60s, El-Dabh was grouped with 
fellow composers Hovhaness, Lou Harrison, Colin McPhee, Paul Bowles, and 
Peggy Glanville-Hicks, under the rubric “Les Six d’Orient” (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’s masterpiece; he 
eventually composed three more ballet scores for her. El-Dabh’s 
orchestral/choral score for the 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 
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 
the 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 of 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, Japan, 
Korea, 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 in 1944. In 1959 he was invited by Otto Luening and Vladimir 
Ussachevsky to join the first group of composers at the newly set up 
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. In 2005, El-Dabh was 
commissioned by the American Music Center's Siday Music on Hold Program 
to compose a new electroacoustic work to be used for the American Music 
Center's telephone system.

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 
Ogún: 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, Ohio and in New York.

El-Dabh has served on the faculty of Kent State University's School of 
Music 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. In 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 
Culture and National Guidance, Auricular, Pointless Music, Luna Bisonte, 
Zentrum für 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, Ashenafi Kebede, 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 
published by the Kent State University Press in April 2003.

El-Dabh holds degrees from Cairo University, the New England 
Conservatory of Music, and Brandeis University. He has served as a 
cultural and ethnomusicological consultant to the Smithsonian 
Institution’s 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.

In 2004, El-Dabh was honored by the Society for American Music with a 
panel session and interview-recital at the organization's conference in 
Cleveland, Ohio. In August 2005, El-Dabh was the keynote speaker at a 
symposium dedicated to the late Nigerian composer Chief Fela Sowande at 
Churchill College in Cambridge, England. In September 2005, he was the 
featured performer and presenter at the Unyazi Festival of Electronic 
Music in Johannesburg and Soweto, South Africa, the first festival of 
electronic music on the African continent. In October 2005 he was the 
featured composer at a symposium on African and Asian music at the 
Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China.

2006, his 85th year, featured numerous performances of his music in the 
United States, Egypt, and Europe, with a festival taking place at Kent 
State University. 2006 New Works included the opera, “Thamos, King of 
Egypt” and “The Symphony for 1000 Drums” performed in early July in 
Public Square in Downtown Cleveland.

In March 2007 he will be the focus of a week-long series of concerts and 
lectures in Boston, at the New England Conservatory, Tufts University, 
and Harvard University, and in August 2007 his works for chorus and 
African percussion will be performed by the men's choir of Oxford 
University at the International Symposium and Festival on Composition in 
Africa and the Diaspora organized by Akin Euba, at Cambridge University 
in England.

David Badagnani
2007

Halim’s Schedule this week in Boston:

For those who will be there (or who know someone who
lives in the area and who may be interested), Halim
El-Dabh invites you to celebrate with him in his old
hometown of Boston, Massachusetts, for a week-long
festival of his music, this March 1-5, 2007 (including
a gala concert for his 86th birthday). The events are
as follows:

* * * * *

Halim El-Dabh - Residency in African Composition
March 1-5, 2007, New England Conservatory and Tufts
University
---------------------------
1) Workshop: Halim El-Dabh, Living Legend of African
Composition
Thursday, March 1, 2007
4:00-5:30 p.m.
Williams Hall, New England Conservatory
Free

El-Dabh discusses his career, in which contemporary
music and world music have intertwined. The event will
feature a performance of El-Dabh's "Monotone, Bitone,
and Polytone" for wind sextet and percussion (composed
and performed at NEC in 1952), and El-Dabh will
perform his "Felucca" at the piano. Event sponsored by
New England Conservatory Intercultural Institute.

2) NEC Piano Performance Seminar
William Chapman Nyaho: Piano music of African
composers (including works of El-Dabh)
Friday, March 2, 2007
10 a.m.-12 p.m.
Williams Hall, New England Conservatory
Free
Event sponsored by New England Conservatory
Intercultural Institute.

Originally from Ghana, the virtuoso pianist William
Chapman Nyaho is a specialist in piano music by
composers from Africa and the African diaspora. Hs is
completing a five-level graded anthology of Piano
Music of the African Diaspora, to be published by
Oxford University Press in 2007.

3) Concert: Music of Halim El-Dabh and Alan Hovhaness
Sunday, March 4, 2007
8:00 p.m.
Distler Performance Hall, Perry and Marty Granoff
Music Center
Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts

Born ten years apart (in March 1921 and March 1911),
El-Dabh and Hovhaness both lived in Boston and
attended the New England Conservatory (with Hovhaness
also attending Tufts). Experience a panorama of
colorful new and old works by two like-minded
composers.

Performing musicians: Kenneth Radnofsky, soprano and
alto saxophones; Takaaki Masuko, derabucca (Egyptian
goblet drum); Patrick Keating, guitar; John McDonald,
piano; Halim El-Dabh, piano; and members of the Boston
Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose, conductor.

Works to be performed:
Halim El-Dabh – "Mekta' in the Art' of Kita, Book 4,"
for piano; "The Miraculous Tale," for alto saxophone
and derabucca (premiere); and "Misriyaat" and
"Ifriqiyaat," for piano (played by the composer).
Alan Hovhaness – "Suite for Saxophone and Guitar,"
"Song of the Sea," for piano and strings (first
performance since 1933), and "Concerto for Soprano
Saxophone and String Orchestra."

This performance is open to the entire Tufts community
and general public. Tickets are $10 for adults, $2 for
students with ID (or children). All seating is general
admission. Tickets can be reserved by either coming to
the box office during business hours (11 a.m. to 4
p.m., weekdays) or by calling the box office at (617)
627-3679. No email reservation requests will be taken.
Tickets will also be sold at the door. Doors open at
7:30 p.m.

Concert sponsored by the Tufts University Department
of Music, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP),
and World-Wide Concurrent Premieres and Comissioning
Fund, Inc.

4) Halim El-Dabh: Electronic and Electroacoustic Music
Concert/Workshop
Monday, March 5, 2007
6:00-8:00 p.m.
Williams Hall, New England Conservatory of Music
Free
Event sponsored by New England Conservatory
Intercultural Institute.

The culmination of Halim El-Dabh's residency will
feature the composer in discussion with Robert
Labaree, John Mallia, and Bob Gluck, focusing on the
intersections between African traditional music and
electronic music in his work. In addition to several
pioneering electronic works, a new pan-Middle Eastern
electroacoustic trio entitled "Emerge" (2007) will
feature Halim El-Dabh, theremin, sine wave generator,
electronically processed derabucca, and voice; Robert
Labaree, electronically processed çeng (Turkish harp);
and Bob Gluck, electronically processed shofar.

Full schedules and directions:

http://www.newenglandconservatory.edu/worldmusic/events.html

http://concerts.newenglandconservatory.edu/index.php?Date_Year=2007&Date_Month=3

http://www.tufts.edu/musiccenter/events/calendar.html

* * * * *

Of further interest: on Sunday, May 20, 2007, El-Dabh
will also receive an honorary doctor of music degree
from the New England Conservatory, his alma matter
(M.M., 1953), and some of his music (possibly
"Monotone, Bitone, and Polytone" for wind sextet and
percussion, and "Fanfare 'To a Family of Nations'" for
8 brass instruments) will be performed.

And check out the article about El-Dabh's early
electronic music in this month's issue of the new
music magazine WIRE.