Sami Abu Shumays

In March of this year, the Brooklyn Arts Council (www.brooklynartscouncil.org) produced an amazing month-long festival featuring almost all of the performers of Arabic music in the New York City area, called Brooklyn Maqam.  Zikrayat, my group, was honored to perform, alongside Safaafir, at Joe's Pub, on March 20th.

This is a complete recording of our set.  performing are:
myself, violin
Dimitri Mikelis, oud & accordion
Tareq Abboushi, buzuq
Johnny Farraj, percussion
Nikolai Ruskin, percussion

and featuring vocalists Salah Rajab (2,3) and Gaida (5,6,7)

Here's the program:

1.  Pickles, by Tareq Abboushi

2.  Gameel Gamal, by Farid el-Atrash
originally sung by Farid el-Atrash in the film Lahn il-Khulud ("Immortal Melody")

3.  Ana Lak Ala Tool, by Mohamed Abdel-Wahhab
originally sung by Abdel-Halim Hafiz in the film Ayyam wu Layali ("Days and Nights")

4.  Yasmeen, by Hussein Ahmed Ali
a dance piece for Naima Akif from the film Tamr Hinna

5.  Lughat iz-Zuhuur ("Il-Wardi Gameel"), by Zakaria Ahmed
originally sung by Umm Kulthum in the film Fatima

6.  Imta Hataaraf, by Mohamed el-'Asabgi
originally sung by Esmahan in the film Gharam wu Intiqam ("Love and Revenge")

7.  Min Hubbi Fiik Ya Gaari, by Atia Sharara
originally sung by Hurriyya Hassan in the film Ahibbak Ya Hassan ("I love you Hassan")

I've been posting some writings in my position as Director of the Queens Community Arts Fund... thoughts about public art and arts funding.  Check out my blog at:

http://queenscouncilarts.org/blogs/qcaf/

The recent posts are of a more philosophical nature: see in particular "Italian Nights & the Value of Outdoor Arts Events" and "Helping You Help Yourselves, Part 1: Seeking the Support of Local Businesses"

Well, it's been a new life for me lately... I haven't been active with the podcasts or blog because I've been going through a lot of changes... though I'm embarrassed to say that I still have a few podcast recordings I haven't posted yet (especially a really good one from Sinan Erdemsel). 

So Zikrayat (www.zikrayatmusic.com) is kicking off its most exciting season yet with a performance tonight at Joe's Pub, as part of the Brooklyn Maqam festival that's been going on this month (sponsored by the Brooklyn Arts Council www.brooklynartscouncil.org)  I'm really excited and nervous, because it's our highest profile show to date and it's already sold out!  well, not technically--because the tickets are free--but all reservations have been taken, and Reuter's TV is coming to film and interview us...

We're performing back to back with Amir ElSaffar's (www.amirelsaffar.com) Iraqi Maqam group, Safaafir.  On Tuesday night both he and I had an interview at WBAI, and I also brought our oud player Dimitri Mikelis, and our new vocalist Salah Rajab, and we did some nice performing in the studio... it was nice to do a little back and forth with Amir.  You can listen to the interview & performances online at: http://archive.wbai.org/pls.php?mp3fil=17376 , or download the mp3 directly at: http://archive.wbai.org/files/mp3/080319_000001morc.MP3

We have a number of other exciting shows coming up this spring... check in with the Zikrayat website to find out more.  Robin and I have been crazy busy planning, organizing, and rehearsing for these shows (including another really exciting show slated for May 15th at the CUNY graduate center, which will be a multimedia presentation featuring live performances accompanying silently-projected clips of the vocal and dance numbers from Egyptian films that we'll be performing).

But my other big news is that I am now a full-time employee of the queens council on the arts (www.queenscouncilarts.org); I'm the new director of the Queens Community Arts Fund, which is the re-granting program of the Queens council... basically I administer money from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) and JPMorgan Chase that we re-grant to artists and non-profit arts organizations in Queens.  for 2008 we gave $247,000 to 85 different artists and organizations.

A big part of my work is outreach to the Queens arts community, encouraging artists and organizations to apply for our grants--so if you are a Queens artist or know any Queens artists who might be interested in applying for grants through the Queens council, don't hesitate to contact me at 718-647-3377 x19 or email me at sshumays (at) queenscouncilarts (dot) org   applications for the 2009 funding cycle will be due this september and october.

I'm now in my second week of work here, and I'm really loving it.  The office is in the middle of Forest Park in Queens, my co-workers are great, and I'm gradually getting to meet more artists and organizations in Queens--so it's really rewarding.  Of course it is a major adjustment in my lifestyle, especially given that we've been so busy with performances, rehearsals, and preparations this last month...

I'll do my best to keep posting podcasts... though I'm not promising anything!  but I have a number of musicians that I keep talking about doing podcasts with... so if you check back, you may see some more posts eventually!