Al-Bustan is pleased to present Irtijaliya: Maqam & Raga at Play featuring Issam Rafea and Matt Rahaim performing Arab and Hindustani music fusion.
Rafea (oud) and Rahaim (voice) move freely between traditional forms of maqam and raga and unexplored spaces of free improvisation. Playing with the limits of poetry, moving towards the frontiers of the ineffable, they find their paths spontaneously, guided by the heart’s compass.
Join us virtually for an evening of musical performances!
Time: 7:30 – 9 PM EST
Location: Watch Concert Online followed by conversation with Musicians
Ticket: $10 donations are optional but appreciated
Performance link will be sent upon purchase of ticket
Issam Rafea
Winner of the 2010 “Best Composer Award” in Dubai International Film Festival (Muhr Arab) in the film “Matar Ayloul,” “September Rain,” Rafea was the Chair of the Arabic Music Department at High Institute of Music in Damascus and the principal conductor of Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music from 2003 to 2013. While in Syria, Rafea was an active composer and arranger for TV and Theater since the 90s. Rafea collaborates internationally with groups like “Gorillaz” arranging five works that were performed by the Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music. It was recorded in Damascus Opera house. Rafea is co-founder and oudist for the contemporary Arabic music group Hewar, which has performed in UAE, Egypt, Germany, UK, France, Japan, and USA. In 2011 and 2012 the group participated in the Morgenland Festival in Osnabrueck, Germany. Rafea also founded “Twais Quartet,” a group that performs both original compositions by Rafea and traditional Arabic music works. He is currently Visiting Teacher/Artist in the Department of Music for 2017 Spring Term at Carleton College, MN.
Matt Rahaim
Matt Rahaim is a practicing Hindustani vocalist in the Gwalior tradition, and has trained since 2000 with Vikas Kashalkar and Laxman Krishnarao Pandit. His first book, Musicking Bodies: Gesture and Voice in Hindustani Music, dealt with the tacit bodily disciplines passed down through generations of Hindustani vocalists. His new book, Ways of Voice: Vocal Striving and Moral Contestation in North India and Beyond, investigates various traditions of voice production in India. Recent conceptual essays include “Not Just One, Not Just Now: Voices in Relation” in the Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Ethnomusicology and “Object, Person, Machine, or What: Practical Ontologies of Voice,” in the Oxford Handbook of Voice Studies.
At the U of M, Matt teaches the undergraduate courses World Music (which focuses on several traditions of Terran music) and Music, Society, and Cultures (which teaches how to write about performance, politics, and ethics across musical worlds). He also teaches a range of seminars that are open to graduate and undergraduate students: Practices of Listening; Sonic Ecology; Raga Music; Performance and Sociality; and What do Voices Do?. In addition, Matt teaches a summer Indian vocal music intensive class which is open to all. Students in all of these courses sing.
