Kamilya Jubran, artistic director of Zamkana, and Sharjah Art Foundation present Sounds and Reflections. Spotlighting one of the oldest musical instruments in the world, this listening session, seminar and masterclass focus on the history of women practitioners and invite local musicians, teachers and students to participate in a critique session on their practice and vocalisation.
Listening Session
Thursday, 3 October 2024
8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
The Flying Saucer, Dasman, Sharjah
Languages: English and Arabic
Immerse yourself in a listening session with the acclaimed artist Kamilya Jubran. Embark on a sonic journey as she shares a curated selection of pieces that hold deep personal and artistic significance for her. Following the artist’s presentation, a brief Q&A guided by Hasan Hujairi, head of Sharjah Art Foundation’s Music Department, will delve deeper into Jubran’s artistic process and musical influences.
Seminar
Friday, 4 October 2024
4:30 pm–7:30 pm
Rubu’ Qarn Music, Mughaidir, Sharjah
Featuring speakers from West Asia, North Africa and Europe, the seminar delves into the evolution of the oud as an instrument, various styles of playing, the importance of the oud across the Arab world, and the history of women practitioners.
Masterclass
Saturday, 5 October 2024
4:30 pm–7:30 pm
Rubu’ Qarn Music, Mughaidir, Sharjah
Led by Kamilya Jubran and the other seminar facilitators, the masterclass invites local musicians, students and teachers of music to explore their voices and instruments.
Zamkana was founded in Paris in April 2014 by a group of artists and friends of the arts as an incubator for artistic projects. It supports the creative vision of Kamilya Jubran, singer, musician and composer of Palestinian origin, who was appointed artistic director. Zamkana encourages original innovative artistic projects, respecting the values of freedom of expression and secularism. In 2018, Zamkana produced SODASSI, the musical creation of six talented young musicians and singers from the Near East who gathered together for an artistic residency in Paris, organised in collaboration with several French cultural organisations and partners. Terrae Incognitae, Zamkana's second major project, was launched in 2020 as a platform for women musicians of different music and sound universes to meet, share and create music.
Raised in Al Rameh, Galilee, Kamilya Jubran was introduced to classical Arabic music by her father, who was a music teacher and instrument maker. At the age of 18, Jubran moved to Jerusalem, where she studied at Hebrew University and joined the ensemble Sabreen. She recorded four albums with the group and toured locally and internationally for two decades. This time encouraged her to deepen her musical research and reshaped her musical identity. Relocating to Europe in 2002, she started experimenting with her first creation, Mahattaat, in Bern, Switzerland. She collaborated with trumpet player and electronic musician Werner Hasler, double bass player Sarah Murcia and visual artist Michael Spahr. This project was a springboard for future projects, with Hasler and Murcia becoming her two main companions in her research. Jubran seeks an original musical expression of her voice and her instrument—the oud—and explores new spaces and horizons for her notes and words through the various projects she realises.
Sherine Tohamy
Sherine Tohamy is the first woman to graduate (with distinction) as an oud soloist from Bait Al Oud, Cairo, where she became a professor in 2002. Since 2009, she has been a member of the institute’s teaching team in Abu Dhabi. She has also taught as Adjunct Instructor of Oud at New York University Abu Dhabi and worked as a director on Egyptian television. Tohamy has released four music albums and participated in international concerts, music festivals and art workshops as a soloist or with international bands. In 2011, she founded Najmat, the first all-women musical group of its kind in the Arab world. Several of Tohamy’s past students have now become professors of the oud. Tohamy holds a BA in French Mass Communications from Cairo University.
Negar Bouban
Negar Bouban is an Iranian musicologist, composer and oud player. For more than two decades, she has been working in the fields of research and university teaching while also pursuing a career as a composer and a performing and recording musician, both as a soloist and with ensembles. A major aspect of her music is improvisation, which gives her concerts a distinctive edge. Bouban holds a PhD in art studies in the interdisciplinary fields of linguistics and musicology. Her thesis focused on the foundations of rhythm in the Persian language and dastgāh music.
Rachel Beckles Willson
Rachel Beckles Willson is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and writer. She is a Research Professor at Codarts University for the Arts, Rotterdam, and Leiden University in the Netherlands (2022–present). She has performed widely as a pianist and oud player, and she is currently preparing a series of CD releases of her electroacoustic compositions. She is the founder and editor of the web-based resource Oudmigrations, which explores and celebrates the multiple spaces in which the oud has been made and heard. As a scholar, Beckles Willson has published numerous articles and books, including Orientalism and Musical Mission: Palestine and the West (Cambridge University Press, 2013) and Ligeti, Kurtág and Hungarian Music during the Cold War (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Amal Waqar
Muscat-based oud player, songwriter and music producer Amal Waqar is known for her eclectic sound. Through exposure to the variety of communities present in the city (she herself being the child of an Indo-Omani father and a Colombian-American mother), her musical style draws on regional folk musics and personal interests, creating a singularly curious and reflective impression. A graduate of Berklee College of Music (2019), where she studied closely under Palestinian oud master and composer Simon Shaheen, Waqar currently plays in Dubai’s Firdaus Orchestra under the creative direction of film composer A. R. Rahman.