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Music, the great diplomat

An Iraqi refugee unifies people by sharing his talents on an ancient instrument.

By LARITA JACOBS, Times Correspondent
Published October 19, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Special to the Times] Rahim Alhaj, considered one of the top oud players in the world, is coming to the Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center on Saturday.

Rahim Alhaj saw his first camel when he visited the zoo in Albuquerque, N.M.

He said this with a smile as he described the time a fan asked if he rode a camel to school. Questions like those prompt Alhaj to reveal his passion: using music to help cultures understand one another.

Born in Baghdad, Alhaj is, first, a talented musician, and second, a political refugee living in Albuquerque.

On Saturday, Alhaj will share his message of cultural understanding as he performs at the Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center.

The cultural sharing begins with Alhaj's instrument: the centuries-old oud (rhymes with food). The oud is the grandfather of all stringed instruments, including the lute and the guitar.

According to Kathy Monahan, director of the Tarpon arts center, the sounds of the oud will be "familiar enough to pull people into the music. Familiar yet unusual."

Alhaj began studying the oud in Iraq at age 9. It was evident early on that he had a remarkable talent as both a musician and composer. He won his first award for composition at 13 and is today considered one of the top oud players in the world.

As Alhaj discusses his childhood in Iraq, it is easy to see similarities to any young musician.

His mother was his champion. His father thought he should get a "real job."

To please his father, he studied to be a teacher and has a degree in Arabic literature.

His musical education included two years studying classical music: Bach, Beethoven, Schubert.

He was required to practice maqams, or scales, over and over.

But unlike most young musicians, Alhaj says he was jailed and tortured for refusing to write music in praise of the regime of Saddam Hussein. When the 1991 Persian Gulf War began, he fledto Jordan and Syria. And in 2000, he came to the United States with the assistance of Catholic Charities.

Alhaj considers his concerts to be conversations.

"Music has tremendous power to bring people together. In our cultural identities we can see our similarities rather than differences," he said. "How often do you see the artists, musicians and authors of the Middle East portrayed? No, we see killing people and men with weird beards."

Alhaj has played the oud with jazz bands, flamenco musicians and symphony orchestras. "This great mixture of ethnicities, they all found harmony with the oud," he said.

The Tarpon Springs event will be the premiere release concert for Alhaj's new CD, Home Again, which is dedicated to his mother. The CD, his fifth, reflects on his trip to Iraq after 13 years in exile.

"It was an emotional trip to go back to Iraq," Alhaj said, "as well as all the feelings of returning to my other home here in the U.S."

If you go

Concert

Where: Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center, 324 Pine St.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Cost: $20 for members and students, $22 nonmembers

Contact: (727) 942-5605

Career highlights

Awards

2003: Winner of the Bravo Award for Excellence in Music

2001: Award for work toward peace from Veterans for Peace

1988: Music Institute Award for Composition

Albums

The Second Baghdad

Iraqi Music in a Time of War

Friendship: Oud & SadaqaQuartet

When the Soul Is Settled: Music of Iraq

Home Again

Source: www.rahimalhaj.com

[Last modified October 19, 2007, 00:10:11]