WMI Plus At Home - Firas Zreik and Ronnie Malley
WMI PLUS At Home experiences bring music from around the world into the comfort of your home. Renowned artists share their lives, instruments, and stories from their personal environments, bringing an intimacy and uniqueness to each event. These talks are led by fellow musicians, journalists, and ethnomusicologists. Live captioning will be provided during the event.
We are thrilled to provide these events for FREE. If you are able to make a donation of any amount while registering for this event, it will help us to keep the music playing. THANK YOU!
Monday, December 15, 2025 – 6 PM EST
WMI Plus At Home Experiences are free of charge, but you must register to reserve your space. You will receive an order confirmation once your registration is complete that includes the link to the event. Only registered participants will receive email instructions on how to join the event via Zoom online. Bring your questions! The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session with attendees posting their questions electronically for live answers.
Artist-composer, lyricist, and educator Firas Zreik has performed and recorded across the world as a leader and highly sought out collaborator since 2013, including a WMI show with Simon Shaheen at Corpus Christi Church earlier this year. A sonic revolutionary, the Palestine-born New Yorker has transformed global perception of the kanun. His treatment of the instrument preserves its identity as a vital part of the Maqam tradition, and stretches its potential as a cultural chameleon enhancing a range of fresh, evolving sounds. He views the Maqam’s improvisation-driven legacy as a vessel for unbound creative expression across musical styles.
Ronnie Malley is a multi-instrumentalist musician on oud, guitar, keyboards, and percussion, a theatrical performer, producer, and educator. He has collaborated with international artists, composed and consulted for many cultural music projects in film and theater, appeared as a guest artist on several works, and is Executive Director of Intercultural Music Production in Chicago. Ronnie joined us for our very first WMI Plus At Home in 2020 with Mehmet Ali Sanlikol.
The kanun is a traditional Middle Eastern zither known for its distinctive trapezoidal shape and bright, resonant sound. It typically features between 72 and 81 strings, arranged in groups of three, which are plucked with small plectra attached to the player’s fingers. The kanun is played while resting on the musician’s lap or a table, and its sound is finely tuned using small levers that adjust the pitch of each string. It is a central instrument in Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and North African music, valued for its expressive range and intricate tonal possibilities.