Fez: Queen of Cities
An evening of live music and dance at UCLA's Royce Hall
Saturday, November 15, 2008
8:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Royce Hall
UCLA
Experience 1200 years of living history as we celebrate Fez, the spiritual and religious center of Morocco, in an exhilarating evening of music and dance featuring performances by Sanaa Marahati, the great interpreter of Moroccan malhoun; master percussionist Ali Alaoui and the Moultaqa Salam Ensemble presenting Arab-Andalusian music; and special guests Abderrahim Amrani from the Fez Sufi Brotherhood of the Hamadsha, A. J. Racy, Raphael Skouri, Momo Loudiyi and Loud Oasis, Fattah Abbou from AZA, and contemporary dance choreographed by Achinta S. McDaniel of the blue13 dance company.
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Born in Fez, Ali Alaoui has been practicing the art of percussion since childhood. He studied Arab-Andalusian music at the National Academy and at age nineteen joined the prestigious Orchestre de Fes, and subsequently, the Moroccan National Orchestra. Considered one of the best percussionists in North Africa and in great demand as a soloist, since 1999 he has been living and teaching in Toulouse, France, where he shares his musical expertise with French musicians.
Moultaqa Salam, under Ali Aaoui’s direction, plays a varied repertoire of traditional and sacred music, leading audiences into the heart of Moroccan musical culture and its rhythmic diversity. With Andalusian inheritances, nomadic malhoun poetry, exhilarating rhythms of trance, and polyrhythmic creations, Ali Alaoui and Moultaqa Salam have a passion for rhythm and a unique cultural imprint.
A. J. Racy is a performer, composer, and Professor of Ethnomusicology at UCLA. Racy is internationally recognized for his extraordinary musicianship and his numerous publications, including his award-winning book, Making Music in the Arab World: The Culture and Artistry of Tarab. He is a master of many traditional instruments, particularly the nay, a reed flute, and the buzuq, a long-necked fretted lute. He has performed extensively in major U.S. theaters such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Hollywood Bowl, and at international venues including the Beiteddine Festival in Lebanon and the Commonwealth Institute in London. He has composed and performed for the Kronos Quartet and the Sacramento Symphony Orchestra, as well as for feature and documentary films. His music has been released on a number of CDs, including three Lyrichord albums, Ancient Egypt, Taqasim, and Mystical Legacies, and on a Kronos Quartet release titled Caravan.
Fattah Abbou was born and raised in a small Moroccan village before moving to the city of Marrakesh. He has played Tamazight and other traditional Moroccan music for over two decades. He is proficient in many stringed instruments (banjo, oud, lotar, bouzouki, sentir, gimbri, mandolin, violin, and guitar), and an array of Moroccan percussion instruments. Fattah's passionate voice delivers the impact of AZA's powerful vocal section.
Achinta S. McDaniel is a pioneer of mixed-genre contemporary dance in the U.S., working as a leading choreographer on both stage and screen throughout the nation for over 10 years. In 1999, she founded blue13 dance company, and has since enjoyed great success in creating live, critically acclaimed dance productions internationally in her signature styles, Neo-Kathak™ and Bollywood-Tech™. She is known for her experimentation with a wide variety of multi-ethnic, multi-genre movement styles, fueled by a commitment to athletic and fluid contemporary dance theater. A prolific choreographer, performer, and instructor, McDaniel’s powerful style encompasses techniques from ballet, modern dance, jazz, tap, hip-hop, Bollywood, Bhangra, African, Moroccan, and classical Indian Kathak. McDaniel is a 2008 Horton Dance Award nominee in the category of long-form choreography for her contemporary epic, “Six.Fifteen and Everything Senseless.”
This concert is being held in conjunction with the conference, Fez, Morocco, Crossroads of Knowledge and Power: Celebrating 1200 Years of Urban Life on November 14-15 at UCLA and UC-Riverside.
This event is produced in collaboration with the Moroccan American Cultural Center, Los Angeles (MACCLA). The purpose of MACCLA is to preserve and foster understanding of the cross-cultural experiences of the Moroccan American community by embracing the uniqueness and commonalities that are present in both Moroccan and American cultures.
This event is made possible by grants from the Association 1200ième Anniversaire de la Fondation de la Ville de Fès and the Social Science Research Council.
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This event is FREE, but tickets are required. Tickets are available from the UCLA Central Ticket Office (310-825-2101 or cto@tickets.ucla.edu), located on the UCLA campus in the James West Alumni Center, just east of Pauley Pavilion and next to Parking Structure #6. The Central Ticket Office is open Monday through Friday, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, and for phone calls only on Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.
Parking for the Central Ticket Office is available at the metered rate of $0.50 per 15 minutes in Parking Structure #6. Parking is also available for $9.00 per entry at the Parking Kiosk on Westwood Boulevard.
For directions to UCLA and for campus and parking maps, please click here
Special Instructions
Open seating. Doors open at 7:30 pm. Parking for the concert available in Parking Lot 5 for $9 per car (cash only).
Center for Near Eastern Studies
Tel: 310-825-1181
cnes@international.ucla.edu
www.international.ucla.edu/cnes
Sponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies, Moroccan American Cultural Center-Los Angeles, Royal Air Maroc
