Columbia University Hosts a Number of Cultural Events
About the Work of the Egyptian Musician HALIM EL-DABH
Calendar of Events:
Date: Friday, Jan. 20th
Event: "Waveforms and the Magic of Ethno-dynamics" (lecture on electronic music/ethnomusicology for Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
Fee: Free
Time: 12:00-1:30 p.m.
Location: Hamilton Hall, Room 419
1130 Amsterdam Avenue (at 116th St.).
Columbia University, New York, NY
more information: tel.: (212) 854-0507
Date: Saturday, January 21, 2006
Event: El-Dabh's piano work "Coma Dance" (1950) will be performed as part of the "African Exchanges" + panel discussion
Fee:tickets$20
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Location: Miller Theatre, Columbia University, New York, NY
Date Monday, January 23, 2006
Event: "Theatre of Ideas/African Music Symposium".
Fee: tickets $15
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Location: Miller Theatre, Columbia University, New York, NY.
Bio:
HALIM EL-DABH (b. Cairo, Egypt, 1921) is the foremost living composer of Egypt, Africa, and the Arabic-speaking nations. Trained in agriculture, he came to the U.S. in 1950 to pursue composition studies with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood, eventually obtaining U.S. citizenship. Also an avid student of world musics, he conducted extensive field recording in Egypt, Ethiopia, and a dozen other African nations.
His numerous operatic, symphonic, and electronic works (including four ballet scores for Martha Graham) are infused with the spirit and mystery of African and Ancient Egyptian ritual, and he was among the first to integrate African and Egyptian instruments with western ones. His orchestral/choral score for the Great Pyramids at Giza has been heard there each evening since 1961.
El-Dabh was also among the first group of international composers invited by Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky to work at the newly formed Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in 1959 and many of his works created during this period (including the electronic drama "Leiyla and the Poet") are considered classics of the genre. He was recognized as the first African electronic composer at the UNYAZI Festival of Electronic Music in Johannesburg, South Africa in September, 2005--the first such festival to take place on the African continent. He has taught on the faculties of Haile Selassie I University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Howard University in Washington, D.C., and currently holds the position of University Professor Emeritus at Kent State University in Ohio, where he has taught since 1969. In celebration of his eighty-fifth birthday (March 4, 2006), a series of 20 concerts of his music will take place in Ohio, St. Louis, New York, and Scotland.