Sami Abu Shumays performs and teaches in the NYC area. He has two bands: Zikrayat and NYCTakht. In addition to playing traditional Arabic music, he composes original music in various traditional styles. All of the songs on myspace are his original compositions.
To hear more free music from sami (and other musicians), please subscribe to his podcast "Personal Performances." You can subscribe via iTunes, by searching the podcast directory for "Personal Performances," "Sami Abu Shumays," or "Arabic Music." Or directly via RSS feed: http://shumays.libsyn.com/rss
the blog page for the podcast (where you can download directly & see commentary on each post) is:
shumays.libsyn.com
a super-song, a mega-composition, something that astonishes people, that makes them sob, laugh and rejoice. No “sophisticated” art but no cheap entertainment either. Take the best of pop, jazz, tango, opera, operetta, klezmer, soul, blues, minimalist music, virtuosic violin-music (Paganini, Wienawsky, Sarasate) and so on, or compose your own style. Everything is fine as long as the audience is crazy about it.
Concerning the playing technique the composition is expected to be sophisticated, challenging and unconventional. It is expected to combine new effects with innovative sounds and hot rhythms.
Instrumentation: 2 violins
Duration: approximately 5 minutes of music
Awards: 1. Prize: 3000 Euros Heinrich-Vetter Preis 2. Prize: 2000 Euros Bourgier-Seisser-Cleve-Werhahn-Preis 3. Prize: 1000 Euros Pro Musica Viva Maria Strecker-Daelen Preis 4. Prize: 400€ Additionally, there will be two extra prizes of the PE-Förderkreis for students of music: each consists of 250 Euros!
Deadline: 01.07.2009
Course of events: With the professional counselling of Prof. Sidney Corbett we will determine a preselection (in total six compositions) among all the compositions sent in. That preselection is presented to the audience at the concert of awardees (on the 18th of September 2009 at the Reiss-Engelhorn Museum, Mannheim). The audience is going to vote for the awarding.
I will be offering two Maqam workshops in Berkeley, California, on Thursday November 29th and Sunday December 2nd.
Thursday's workshop will focus on violin and string playing (though others are welcome to attend); Sunday's workshop will focus more on maqam singing (though string players and others are also welcome to attend).
Details: Workshops will be held at 5914 San Jose Ave. Richmond, CA 94804 (just north of berkeley, near El Cerrito Plaza Bart station and the Central Ave. exit of 80/580) Thursday, November 29th, 6:30-9:30pm Sunday, December 2nd, 1:00-4:00pm cost is $25 per workshop
please RSVP to Dennis Demakos at: dionysiosdemakos@yahoo.com if interested in attending; workshops have already begun to fill up.
