What is the role of citizens and local communities in preserving the sound of their region? Who decided what music and sounds are ‘worth’ being archived? And how should we engage with archives as sites of both remembering and forgetting? As part of the ERC’s Beyond 1932 Research Project at King’s College London, sound artist […]
Ibrahim Muslimani presents on the musical heritage of Aleppo, focusing particularly on the art of Muwashshahat. Martin Stokes and Sophie Frankford participated in performing this musical repertoire alongside Ibrahim.
Martin Stokes organised a 1-day workshop on May 31, ‘Song and Dance-scapes in Popular Turkish, Greek and Egyptian Cinema/Theatre’, with Anne R David (Roehampton KCL), Dafni Tragaki (University of Thessaly), Carole Woodall (University of Colorado, Colorado Springs), Lydia Papadimitriou (John Moores University, Liverpool), Cüneyt Çakırlar (Nottingham University), Samar Abderrahman (Liverpool University), Iain Smith (KCL), Yara […]
Get ready for two of Oxford Maqam’s sell-out shows in one evening: ‘Tarab and Tango’ and ‘Cairo Nights’, 7pm 1st June at the Greenwood Theatre, London. Get drawn in by unique sounds inspired by 1930s Cairo as the birthplace of Arabic tango, followed by the incredible big band collaboration showcasing 1950s Egypt in the second […]
Sophie Frankford, alongside Dalia Ibrahim and Dr. Kawkab Tawfik, organised a 1-day symposium, ‘Listening in: Music and Power in Egypt’. Sophie also presented her research, with a paper on “Sheikh Imam: The Radio Experiment”. For event link, please see here.
On 4 and 5 October 2024, team members Martin Stokes, Rim Irscheid, Sophie Frankford and PhD student Merel Dubois Van Slageren participated in the panel ‘Of What is Music Capable in Situations of Forced Migration’, in conjunction with the Music and Migration network at EHRSS Bayonne, directed by Denis Laborde, together with Yara al-Ghadhban and […]
‘Beyond 1932’ team attended the performance of the five-member Nasim-e Tarab Ensemble. It was a suite of classical Iranian music composed and arranged by Saeid Kordmafi, based on his extensive research into the music of the Near and Middle East and Central Asia, with a view to approach classical Iranian music from a cross-cultural and […]
Farid took part to the closing event of the Palestinian Sound Archive exhibition, accessible from 27 July to 1 November 2024 at Southbank Centre. It explores archival practice as a decolonial methodology and act of resistance, through sharing archival sounds and images that preserve and document Palestinian heritage, culture and resistance. Palestinian Sound Archive is […]
Sophie Frankford and Yara Salahiddeen recently participated in a panel at the annual conference of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) entitled Melodious Resistance: Music, Politics and Pedagogy. Sophie Frankford Between Welfare and Exclusion: The Shifting Role of Egypt’s Musicians’ Syndicate When Egypt’s Musicians’ Syndicate was established in 1944, thanks in part to the […]
Rim and Farid as members of Counterpoints network participated to the ‘Annual Get Together’ in 4 December 2024, co-hosted with Unbound Philanthropy. The event gathered artists, cultural networks, and organisations working with refugees. It was also an opportunity to celebrate the work done in 2024 and share plans for 2025.
The Middle East and Central Asia Music Forum has been running since 2007 and is open to researchers, students and anyone interested in the music and culture of the region. The Forum is convened by Professor Laudan Nooshin from City St George’s, University of London (l.nooshin@city.ac.uk) and Professor Rachel Harris from SOAS, University of London […]
