Berklee launches Signature Music Series with Al-Murtaja: A Celebration of Sudanese Music at Berklee Performance Center

Berklee launches its 2015 - 2016 Signature Music Series with a celebration of traditional and modern Sudanese music. This special event will feature four visiting artists from Sudan, representing the country’s rich musical and cultural diversities from various regions and tribes.

The concert’s producer and director is Sudanese student Mohamad Araki. Araki has gathered 32 student and alumni musicians to perform with guest artists Emmanuel Jal, Asim Gorashi, Mohamed Tahir, and Abu Araki Elbakheet, Araki’s father.

“Sudan is heir to an extremely rich tradition of musical, dramatic, and artistic expression, yet this music has not been well exposed or documented due to civil and political turmoil in the country,” says Araki. “The concert’s title, Al-Murtaja, means the thing or person people are waiting for, and this concert fulfills that wish by featuring musicians from all parts of Sudan to create a sense of shared cultural identity.”...

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Berklee launches its 2015 - 2016 Signature Music Series with a celebration of traditional and modern Sudanese music. This special event will feature four visiting artists from Sudan, representing the country’s rich musical and cultural diversities from various regions and tribes.

The concert’s producer and director is Sudanese student Mohamad Araki. Araki has gathered 32 student and alumni musicians to perform with guest artists Emmanuel Jal, Asim Gorashi, Mohamed Tahir, and Abu Araki Elbakheet, Araki’s father.

“Sudan is heir to an extremely rich tradition of musical, dramatic, and artistic expression, yet this music has not been well exposed or documented due to civil and political turmoil in the country,” says Araki. “The concert’s title, Al-Murtaja, means the thing or person people are waiting for, and this concert fulfills that wish by featuring musicians from all parts of Sudan to create a sense of shared cultural identity.”

Elbakheet, a grand figure of Sudanese song, is an example of artistic resistance during one of the most oppressive periods of Sudan's history. Graduating from the Institute of Music and Drama in 1978, he became a popular singer on Sudanese radio and at festivals. After the rise of Sudan's Islamist government in 1989, he was banned because of the strong social content of his lyrics. He was arrested, and forbidden to sing in public. Undeterred, he went to Egypt and made some of his most popular recordings.

Redemptive themes are also common in the lives and music of the other performers on the program. Jal survived a life of a child soldier to become internationally acclaimed as a peace-promoting hip-hop artist and film star appearing in The Good Lie with Reese Witherspoon. Gorashi considers music to be a ladder that takes him to the highest level of spirituality, and his combines Sudanese tribal folk music, sacred Sufi melodies, chants, and whistling.

A recording session has been arranged for all of the musicians in the Shames Family Scoring Stage. A forum and multi-media exhibition including traditional clothing and food and photographs will educate students about Sudan in the days preceding the concert.

The Signature Series at Berklee continues this fall with Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, with the Boston Pops performing a new score written by student film composers at Symphony Hall on October 30; Totó La Momposina Meets Berklee, featuring the Colombian singer and dancer on November 5; and Joyce Moreno Meets Berklee, with the Brazilian singer-songwriter on December 10. All concerts feature Berklee students, faculty, and alumni collaborating with world-renowned musicians.

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