10/1 ALHAN Middle Eastern Music Ensemble

Doors at 7:30 Performance at 8pm admission $10
ALHAN Middle Eastern Music Ensemble performs classical and popular Arabic and Turkish music of the 17th to the 21st centuries. The group features Eric LaPerna; riqq, darbuka and nay, Tom Kovacevic; oud, nay and vocals, Madeleine Hanna; lead vocals and frame drum and Megumi Sasaki; violin. Alhan’s repertoire is drawn from compositions of some of the preeminent composers of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Turkey. They also perform muwashshahat, a classical song form developed in 10th century Andalusia and performed throughout the modern Arab world. The members of ALHAN bring many varied musical backgrounds to their exciting interpretation of Middle Eastern Music. They strive to present authentic versions of the music with a contemporary flare.

Alhan plays a number of instruments unique to Middle Eastern Music. The oud, on which the theory is given, is a short necked fretless lute. The riqq is basically a well made tambourine which has a very developed technique including multiple hand positions and ways of striking the head and symbols. The nay is a rim blown bamboo flute which traces its ancestry back to Sumer. One of the distinct features of both Arabic and Ottoman music is the advanced system of maqamat or modes built on tetra chords and microtonal intervals. This system divides the western diatonic scale of 12 semitones into “quarter” tones. There are dozens of modes in current use today. The music also uses a number of iqa’at or rhythmic modes with patterns of five, seven, ten, fourteen, etc as common as three and four and measures that run to the length of twenty eight, forty four, etc… beats.  Middle Eastern Music, through its microtonal scales and complex meters seems capable of an almost unlimited range of melodic and expressive possibility.

Bios

Madeleine Hanna has a B.M. in vocal performance from the University of Southern Maine. She then studied Early Music performance with Laurie Monahan at the Longy School of Music. Although of  Syrian/ Lebanese descent she first heard Arabic Classical Music performed by the Near Eastern Music Ensemble in Boston in 2001. Since then she has studied Arabic classical singing with the renowned oudist and composer, Simon Shaheen, and at the Arabic Music Retreat with Rima Khcheich from Beirut, Lebanon . Ms. Hanna has had a uniquely varied singing career, having sung music of many styles and from many cultures. She traveled in Southern Italy to learn  traditional songs in regional dialects from local singers. She has performed with the early music ensemble the Saint Mary Schola and  as a soloist  throughout Maine.

Tom Kovacevic studied classical piano at the University of Notre Dame. Since then he has explored a wide variety of musical styles and has played many instruments, including organ, electric guitar, bass, banjo, and panpipes. His introduction to Middle Eastern music was playing guitar for Baraka Middle Eastern Dance Ensemble. In 2000 he began studying oud with Armenian master, Alan Shavarsh Bardezbanian. He studies nay with the renowned virtuoso, Bassam Saba at the Arabic Music Retreat. He is organist/choir director at St. David’s Episcopal church in Kennebunk  and Grace Church in Portland. He also directs the choral group The Blue Lobster and sings with the New Camerata Singers.

Eric LaPerna has been a percussionist since 1987. He began studying African rhythms in 1991 with Nigerian drummer Alani Ogunladi. In 2000 he joined oud virtuoso Alan Shavarsh Bardezbanian’s Middle Eastern Ensemble as lead percussionist. As a student of Al’s he learned the Turkish, Armenian and Greek rhythmic systems. The following year he began an ongoing study of the riqq (arabic tambourine) and the iqa’at (Arabic rhythmic modes) with his teacher and mentor, Master Arabic percussionist Michel Merhej Baklouk. Eric also studies the nay (Middle Eastern reed flute) with masters Ali Jihad Racy and Bassam Saba. He is the Director of the Bowdoin College Middle Eastern Music Ensemble, and is a member of the Applied Music Faculty at Bates College. He also teaches Arabic drum classes and private lessons throughout Southern Maine.

Violinist Megumi Sasaki was born in Tokyo, Japan, and grew up in Frankfurt, Germany where she received her degree (Diplom) in Classical Violin and Instrumental Education from Hochschule fuer Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Frankfurt/Main. She came to the U.S. in 2003 to study Jazz Violin with the ‘World Scholarship’ and earned a degree in Violin Performance at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.
She has performed with different groups and orchestras throughout the New England area, as well as in Europe and Japan. She plays various styles of music, such as classical, jazz, rock, pop, folk and originals, and has appeared on numerous recordings. Megumi is currently living in Portland, ME, and teaching at the Musical Suite in Newburyport, MA.