WMI Plus At Home - Faraj Abyad with Zafir Tawil
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, April 28, 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.
Join us for a celebration of Arab American Heritage Month!
Faraj Abyad is a contemporary Syrian composer based in New York City. His musical approach is to redefine classical Arabic music. Faraj Abyad grew up in the United States, but always held his Arabic language and heritage dearly.
He composes music to classical Arabic poetry of the past and present, each time featuring a specific poet with his/her own unique style. Abyad’s songs keep true to the principles of the traditional Arabic musical system, “Tarab.” Tarab loosely translates to “ecstasy”, which is the spiritual high attained by the listener when Arabic music is played with strong emotions and beauty.
His most recent album, Kisses of Poetry, features music set to the words of poetry legends such as Ahmad Shouqi, Mahmoud Darwish, and Nizar Qabbani.
He’ll be joined in conversation by multi-instrumentalist and master of Arabic music Zafer Tawil. A Q&A with attendees will follow the conversation.