Zikrayat at Joe's Pub, Sami at Queens Council on the Arts

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!