A Beautiful Musical Day

 

The MEME Takht Ensemble

 

  

Saturday, March 14, 2026, was a beautiful day for music.  I had two engagements, both gratis, and both were fun and uplifting.

The first was a celebration of Nowruz at the University of Chicago’s Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC).  Nowruz, meaning “new day,” is the celebration of the new year which, 3,000 years ago in Zoroastrian Persia, was celebrated on the first day of Spring, the vernal equinox.  To this day, Nowruz is still a significant holiday, a national holiday, in present day Iran.

The Nowruz celebration at the ISAC is a family oriented craft and educational event.  It ends with members of the University of Chicago Middle Eastern Music Ensemble (MEME) giving a concert of Persian, Arab and Turkish music.  I have participated in this event maybe a half-dozen times in my 12 years with MEME. 

MEME has grown dramatically in size over the years.  At the concerts this year, we have 40-50 musicians and a choir of 20-25, depending on the concert.  We have only taken a takht ensemble (Arab for a small musical ensemble) to the Nowruz event as the stage is small.  This year we had 9 musicians and 6 singers.  It was the largest group we have ever taken to this event.  Only the musicians were on stage, and the choir was in front of us, stage right.  We introduced the instruments and spoke about MEME and our next concert on May 23^rd.  We played two Persian songs, one Turkish, two Arabic, one Kazakh song, and a song that has verses in Turkish, Arabic, and Farsi. 

There were two practices for this concert.  The first was on the Thursday before, but a little more than half of us were able to be there.  The three of us playing Middle Eastern Instruments were not able to attend the Thursday practice.  The second was two hours before the concert.  We walked into that practice not feeling we were ready for the concert, but after two hours of focused work, we were ‘ready for prime time.’

We had a grand time practicing and performing.  The audience of 120 or so loved our performance, maybe almost as much we enjoyed playing.  It was a lot of fun and we were tight.  We were energetic for the lively selections and soulful for the laments.  It was a great joy to play with my MEME friends. 

If this were the only event, it would have been a beautiful musical day.  But, as soon as we were done, I had to jump in the car and drive to Glenview to attend and provide some music at a very special birthday. 

MariAnne is a lovely lady.  Her parents survived the Armenian Genocide and came to America.  The lived in a part of Western Armenia, the Ottoman Empire, where Turkish was the prominent language.  They brought a love for Turkish music with them.  MariAnne came to love the same love for the music.  I met her when I first came to Chicago in 2006.  She was at night club we were playing at and asked if would play what turned out to be some of the same music I love.  I gladly played, and sang the songs.  We became good musical friends.

Her family planned a birthday party at the senior care facility where she was living.  It was in small party room at the facility.  It was small party, organized by her grandchild, for family and close friends.  I was delighted when asked to come and play some of her favorite songs, I was immediately in though I knew I only had an hour to there.  Driving through the intense downtown traffic could take an hour or up to two hours.

Luckily, it only took an hour to get there.  I ran up to the room and my friend John, who was to join me on guitar, was already there.  MariAnne’s grandson had a very nice sound setup for as.  I began with a taksim.  MariAnne lit up.  I went into her favorite song, Kadifeden Kesesi, and I delighted to see her singing along with me sitting right in front of us.  She sang every word of every verse.  She was so happy.  After a few more songs, they brought out the cake and we played and sang happy birthday.  At similar partys, I would go into another Turkish song, Tin Tin Tini Mini Hanum.  I did so again and MariAnne’s three daughters and three granddaughters got and danced in a circle around.  It was a joyous moment for everyone in that space. 

What a beautiful day.