POTSDAM, NY (02/11/2016)(readMedia)-- SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music is proud to welcome three prominent guest artists traveling from New York City to lead a special Arabic music concert next week, on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at 8 p.m. in the Sara M. Snell Music Theater.

The guest artists include Zafer Tawil, John Murchison and Eylem Basaldi.

Crane student Raquel Klein '16 is organizing this concert. As a SUNY Potsdam Presidential Scholar, she is completing a project on integrating Arabic music into music education curricula.

This concert is free, and the public is invited to attend.

This event is sponsored by SUNY Potsdam's Center for Diversity, the Department of Modern Languages and The Crane School of Music.

About the guest artists:

An accomplished Palestinian musician based in New York City, Zafer Tawil is a virtuoso on oud, violin and qanoun, and is a master of Arabic percussion. He has performed with numerous musicians, ranging from the pop star Sting to avante garde composer/performer Eliot Sharpe, to masters of Arabic music, such as Simon Shaheen, Chad Mami, Bassam Saba and George Ziadeh, among many others. Tawil has composed music for a number of film soundtracks, including most recently Jonathan Demme's "My Favorite American" (not yet released), "Rachel Getting Married" and the documentary "Until When." He has held workshops on Arabic music at numerous universities throughout the United States. Tawil can be heard on numerous recordings, including "Mumtastic" by Shusmo, Giada Hinawis's debut album, "Levantine Indulgence," and two albums with Amir ElSaffars and the Two Rivers ensemble.

John Murchison is a Brooklyn-based bassist. He has a hand in many of the various music scenes of New York City, moving fluidly from jazz and avante garde to musical theatre, to traditional musics from Africa and the Middle East. As a result, his playing style can draw from a wide variety of influences, such as jazz, Arabic maqam, Moroccan Gnawa music and post-tonal melodies. Murchison has performed in a variety of theatre productions, from downtown to Times Square, and has held the bass chair for the critically acclaimed "Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812." He has performed around NYC and in Puerto Rico as a bassist with the folkloric dance ensemble Danza Fiesta. Murchison has also performed with popular artists from West Africa, such as Fode Kouyate and Sekouba Kandia, and is the regular bassist in Famoro Dioubate's group Kakande.

The Turkish-born violinist Eylem Basaldi was on the classical track at the New England Conservatory when she took a class in Turkish folk music and rediscovered the sounds of her youth. She began pursuing her love and passion for Mediterranean musical cultures, and now performs in a wide array of settings featuring Balkan, Middle Eastern, North African and South Asian musical traditions. Basaldi is a member and collaborator in several different groups, including Dolunay, which performs the songs of the people of Turkish descent who lived across Rumeli, the southern Balkan region of the Ottoman Empire. She is also a member of Sandaraa, a band that explores a vast repertoire of South Asian material (from Balochistan, Afghanistan and beyond), while blending it with the sounds of Eastern Europe and more. Basaldi regularly plays and records with various musicians and bands, including the Grammy Award-winning Snarky Puppy, with the classical Turkish singer Ahmet Erdogdular and the Greek jazz bassist Petros Klampanis. She has performed with Omer Faruk Tekbilek, Ercan Irmak, Nukhet Duru, Dave Brubeck, the Borromeo String Quartet, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and the Dunya Musicians Collective, among others. Basaldi has performed in venues such as Symphony Hall in Boston, and Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in NYC and appeared on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" along with the indie rock band Afghan Whigs.

For more information about SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, please visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.

Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York's only All-Steinway institution.

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Posted Thursday February 11, 2016 at 09:59 am by SUNY Potsdam
Last Updated Wednesday February 17, 2016 at 12:03 pm