This Side of Fifty: MEME: Beginning the 2022-23 Season

The Reva and David Logan
Center for the Performing Arts

The Middle Eastern Music Ensemble of the University of Chicago is practicing for our first concert. We are delighted to be face-to-face again. While we were face-to face for two thirds of last year, we were masked and there was an aura pandemic cautiousness over our gatherings. We had planned to have three concerts as is our norm. We only had two, though, in November and May. The practices for March Persian Concert were suspended because of the omicron surge and the concert was postponed and combined with the Arab Concert in May.

This year, things seem much more normal. A few of us still wear masks, so it is kind of post-pandemic normal. It is wonderful to attend practices and learn new songs, brush the dust off old arrangements, and renew friendships and make new ones.

I have been a part of this orchestra since I began teaching at North Park full time in September of 2014. This is the start of my 8^th year. It is one of the best things I have ever done hobby or avocation wise. I have played classical, popular, and folk Turkish, Persian, and Arab music. I have learned to read music again. The part that attracted me to the ensemble was to experience playing classical Turkish music with a large ensemble. It has been that and so much more.

The Ensemble has grown during my time. I want to say we were in the high twenties or low thirties

Jim, Furkan, and Erkan discussing
the nuances of the Mahur maqam

when I started. We are now in the high thirties and probably in the low forties. We have added a brass section in the past year. Not only have we grown, but I feel the musicianship of the Ensembe has gotten better every year. The Ensemble is comprised of University of Chicago students and, what we call community members, like myself. Both the student and community members all seem to have improved in all aspects of musicianship. On top of this, Our Director, Maestro Wanees Zarour, has improved upon his already impressive abilities to make interesting and intricate arrangements that challenges and engages the Ensemble.

Part of the norm of pre, during, and post pandemic is the ever-evolving membership of the ensemble. Certainly, the student members come and go. Undergraduates come from all over the world and are with us for two to four years depending on when they join the ensemble. We have some the graduate students for longer if they are PhD students. The community members have a bit more tenure. But even community members come and go depending on what is going on with their careers, families, and interest. For many the weekly trek to Hyde Park during rush hour can take folks from an hour to two hours to get to practice. Covid, the commute time, changing priorities, our jobs that has community members moving from Chicago all contribute to community members leaving the ensemble. As many as leave, we are fortunate that new players seem to find us and that is a very good thing.

Our newly minted kanun player
Dr. Lama Alghanem Kabir working on Garip

We practice and perform in the Reva and David Logan Center for the Performing Arts. This center that opened in 2012 is an amazing place. We practice in the 9^th Floor Practice room with an amazing view of the University of Chicago Campus. We perform in the 474-seat concert hall that we usually sell out. After a long drive to get there, the Logan Center is a wonderful oasis of a destination.

Our first concert this year, the Turkish Concert, will be January 8. This is late for us. Usually, that concert is around Thanksgiving. With more and more concerts on campus, securing our concert dates has become more and more challenging. If the pandemic times taught us anything, it is to go with the flow. And, we do just that.

We go with the flow and the long drives to get to Logan, because we love the music. We love playing in a large ensemble with membership that changes from concert to concert. We love the mix of music. We love the spirit of friendship and comradery that is a direct reflection of culture created in no small part by the leadership style of Maestro Wanees.