Lillie Gordon still remembers the first time she played Middle Eastern music, way back in her undergraduate years at the College of William & Mary. She learned about notes and scales that are rarely found in Western music. She played alongside instruments she’d never seen before. And she learned to delight in the discomfort of improvising—playing music that isn’t written down on a page.
“I had been playing violin since I was a little kid, but never like this,” she said. “It’s one of those things where you crack open a door and you discover a whole other universe behind it. I realized how much I didn’t know about music.”
A couple of decades later, Gordon, now an NAU ethnomusicology instructor and an academic success coordinator and scholarship advisor in the Honors College, wanted to give others that same gift of giddy discovery—so she created her own Middle East Ensemble right here in Flagstaff.
Founded two years ago and already 20 strong, Gordon’s ensemble of Lumberjacks and local residents explores the rich sonic culture of the Middle East and North Africa. The group’s upcoming concert on Saturday, Nov. 22 at the Beaver Street Theater, “Songs of Longing,” will travel from Iran to Egypt to Saudi Arabia and beyond, with music about love, loss and laughter. The concert is part of the Interference Series, a lineup of genre-bending musical events across Flagstaff.
“The Middle East Ensemble adds a wealth of diversity to our local scene,” said Rob Wallace, who directs the Interference Series, teaches music at NAU and plays in the ensemble. “Particularly in times where the American public is not being encouraged to reach outward, this ensemble allows us to see the richness and diversity of transnational traditions that may just be part of the lives of your friends and neighbors.”
Gordon said it’s a good bet some of the ensemble’s members really are your friends and neighbors. Intent on building a bridge between town and gown, Gordon decided to make the ensemble open to all—people on and off campus, people with and without musical experience, people who are fluent in Arabic or don’t speak a word of it.
Gordon makes concerts equally accessible to audiences by encouraging them to cheer or dance whenever they want. Between each song, she offers translations, summarizes the music’s history and offers other cultural tidbits for context. She hopes breaking down barriers to entry will help break down cultural barriers, too.
“When 9/11 happened, I saw the backlash against Muslims and Arab Americans,” Gordon said. “Many of us aren’t exposed to the Middle East beyond news about conflict and violence. When you’re exposed to their sad songs, funny songs, love songs and children’s songs, it makes you realize the full humanity of people in the Middle East more clearly.”
From ballads to bangers
Concertgoers can expect a mix of raucous “bangers,” playful ditties and ballads that’ll “hit you in the feels.”
“Ana fi Intizarak,” a mammoth Egyptian hit in 1943, falls in the latter category. Channeling the singing sensation Umm Kulthum, senior NAU student Teodora Morris will play violin while crooning about a lost love and even experimenting with some improvisation.
“I’ve been a violinist since I could talk, but improvising on violin was such a foreign concept to me,” Morris said. “Being part of the Middle East Ensemble, I’ve learned and grown so much, both as a person and as a violinist.”
The ensemble hasn’t just opened Morris’s eyes to non-Western musical traditions. It’s also expanded her social circle to include people outside NAU—like Flagstaff resident Mohammed Alshalaby, who plans to perform an uplifting song from his native Saudi Arabia about the joy of spending just one night with loved ones who live far away. Gordon said Alshalaby will play the ‘ud, a stringed instrument that’s the ancestor of the lute.
Gordon said the ensemble will also tackle a humorous song from the Sephardic Jewish tradition—the tale of a seamstress who can’t figure out how to use a sewing machine.
“It must be from when the sewing machine was first invented,” she said. “It’s part of this category of silly in-the-house songs sung in a medieval Spanish language mixed with the modern language from wherever people in the Sephardic diaspora live now, whether it’s Greece or Turkey or the Balkans. I think these songs were a way for people to retain a little connection with their ancestors.”
Gordon said whether you’re of Middle Eastern descent, a music lover or just curious about culture, there’s sure to be something enjoyable for you at “Songs of Longing.”
“What’s wonderful about these concerts is that we’re all learning,” Gordon said. “There are no ‘professionals’ here; there are just performers, listeners and participants exploring these cultures and traditions together.”
Songs of Longing: An evening with the NAU Middle East Ensemble
When: Saturday, Nov. 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Beaver Street Theater, 11 S. Beaver St.
Presented by: Kitt School of Music, Honors College and Interference Series
Tickets: $10 for students, $20 general admission. Purchase at the door.
Jill Kimball | NAU Communications
(928) 523-2282 | jill.kimball@nau.edu