Brooklyn Maqam brings to Joe’s Pub the final night of the first annual New York Oud Festival, a multi-day, multi-venue music festival showcasing the oud and its versatility as it exists in New York’s diverse musical culture.
The NYOF celebrates the oud and its wide-ranging influence on global music culture, showcasing artists from a multitude of traditions and contexts, demonstrating why the oud continues to be one of the world’s most beloved instruments.
This night's concert will feature sets from oudists Ronnie Malley and Ameer Armaly.
Born in South Carolina, Ameer Armaly was exposed to the oud and Arabic music in general from an early age through his uncle who played the oud. He went on to study under Simon and Najib Shaheen. Ameer performs as an instrumentalist with a variety of artists and leads an Arabic music ensemble which performs regularly around the New York area, cultivating local talent and reviving the great Arabic instrumental and vocal music of the twentieth century.
This program will showcase the range of expression that can be produced by the oud, both as a solo instrument and as a lead instrument with backing percussion. The oud has historically been part of an ensemble which would accompany vocal music and play the occasional instrumental piece. In contrast, this program will present instrumental pieces typically played by an ensemble but arranged in a way that utilizes the full range of playing techniques available on the oud to produce a full and satisfying interpretation. Some pieces will be played solo whereas others will utilize backing percussion to create a backdrop against which the oud can express itself. The mood will range from upbeat and familiar to contemplative and exploratory, with room for improvisation which has always been a cornerstone of Arabic music, whether instrumental or vocal.
Ronnie Malley is a Palestinian-American multi-instrumentalist musician, producer, and educator specializing in musical styles from the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and medieval Spain. Ronnie performs with many global artists and ensembles and has worked on award-winning theatrical plays, films, and TV series. He appears on numerous albums and has produced original and collaborative works including Ziryab, The Songbird of Andalusia, American Griot, and Little Syria. Ronnie holds a BA in Global Music Studies from DePaul University and a MA in Languages and Linguistics from University of Chicago, where he is currently a PhD student in Ethnomusicology. Ronnie is the recipient of the 2023 Chamber Music America Michael Jaffee Visionary Award.
For this evening's program, Malley presents On This Earth, a hakawati style musical storytelling performance on the oud. Through his instrument, Ronnie weaves stories and music from the Middle East and North Africa to Al-Andalus and the Americas into a personal and historical journey of cultural exchanges past and present.
Brooklyn Maqam Website
Ronnie Malley Website
Ronnie Malley Photo Credit: Antar Hanif
Ameer Armaly photo courtesy of the artist.