Brandon Terzic and Ehren Hanson, April 2014. All photos by the author except where noted
«This Friday, July 22, will mark the final concert in the Moroccan Court Music Series, a three-year program of live performances in the Islamic Art galleries' Moroccan Court. Generously funded by a grant from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art and the Mossavar-Rahmani Fund for Iranian Art, this concert series has featured instrumentalists, vocalists, and occasionally dancers and actors performing repertoire from the Middle East and South Asia.»
To inaugurate the series in April 2014, we welcomed Brandon Terzic and Ehren Hanson for a program of music featuring the oud (an Arabic stringed instrument) and the tabla (an Indian drum). This first collaboration represented a cross-cultural blending of instruments and traditions that has become central to the vision of the series. Performers have introduced over 20 instruments from countries such as Egypt, Iran, Turkey, India, and Iraq, and while some groups have chosen traditional pairings, such as tabla and sitar, others have opted to combine instruments in more novel arrangements. One of the most magical was that of Yacouba Sissoko playing the kora (a West African stringed instrument often described as a combination of the harp and lute) and Jay Gandhi playing the bansuri (a South Asian flute).
Yacouba Sissoko and Jay Gandhi, July 2014. Photo by Catherine Katona
After reflecting on the past three years, I offer here an overview of the series arranged not by instrument or region, but rather by the ways the performers have expanded these mediums for their audience: collaborating with artists across disciplines, and producing work that complements events occurring throughout the Museum and the world.
While The Met's primary focus is its collection and its exhibitions, it is the accompanying programming, that brings many of the objects and histories of these exhibitions to life. Performers in our series have contributed immensely to this mission, offering new appreciation not only of The Met collection, but also of the exhibitions presented here.
The Sacred Lute: The Art of Ostad Elahi provided inspiration for our first concert that specifically referenced an exhibition. The trio of musicians that performed not only played repertoire of the master musician, Ostad Elahi, on the primary instrument featured in the exhibition, the tanbur, but also provided historical background to complement the music.
Installation view of the many instruments featured in 2014–15 exhibition The Sacred Lute: The Art of Ostad Elahi
Two months of programming in 2015 celebrated Sultans of Deccan India, 1500–1700: Opulence and Fantasy. Alif Laila, Shane Shanahan, and Anubrata Chatterjee collaborated on the sitar, riq, tombak, and daf, highlighting the unique blending of Indian, Persian, and Arabic cultures that epitomized the Deccan courts during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Alif Laila, Shane Shanahan, and Anubrata Chatterjee, May 2015
A month later, Krishna Bhatt offered a more traditional pairing of sitar, tanpura, and tabla. And this past May, the exhibition Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs became the setting for Amir ElSaffar, Naseem Alatrash, and Tareq Rantisi's performance of Iraqi maqam blended with contemporary jazz, another example of artistic fusion similar to that occurring across Anatolia and Iran during the Seljuqs' rule.
Beyond the Museum's doors, holidays such as Nauruz (the Persian New Year) have been a repeated source of inspiration. In March 2015, Rowan Storm and Nima Janmohammadi performed a special concert of entirely Persian repertoire to mark the celebration, followed by Amir Vahab and his ensemble this past year.
Top: Rowan Storm and Nima Janmohammadi, March 2015. Photo by Marianne Barcellona. Bottom: Amir Vahab and ensemble, May 2014
Other performers have drawn from traditions beyond the world of music. The world premiere of Eternal Embrace by Astad Deboo and Yukio Tsuji was a dance performance inspired by the writings of the Sufi poet Hasrat Bulleh Shah. Themes of destruction and rebirth from the poem "Maati" served as a source for the collaborators to choreograph and compose their original work. For Iraj Anvar, the story of Sohrab and Rostam from the Shahnama (the Persian Book of Kings) served as inspiration for a musical recitation that featured himself, a musician (Afshin Goodarzi), vocalist (Katayoun Kamyab), and actor (Ralph Martin), much as the traditional storytellers of Iranian qahva khana (tea houses) would have performed.
Afshin Goodarzi, Katayoun Kamyab, and Ralph Martin, March 2015
Other multidisciplinary collaborations involving visual artists have occurred in gallery spaces surrounding the Moroccan Court. The Met's ongoing Drop-in Drawing series has been a consistent point of collaboration with the Education Department. In an early iteration, Neel Murgai and Shivalik Ghoshal began the evening in the Moroccan Court playing ragas from North India. Overlapping during the last half of the performance, visual artists led visitors in gallery 453 through observational drawing prompts related to the theme "Part and Whole: Fragments in Islamic Art."
Neel Murgai and Shivalik Ghoshal, November 2014
More recently, Abdulrahman Al Akhfash and Ahmad Al Roudani played a program of Yemeni repertoire while visitors drew inspiration from the works of gallery 463. The music from the Moroccan Court was just loud enough to carry through the space to accompany the artists' work.
Our last performance of the series will be part of a Museum-wide evening of programming titled Extreme Measures, which will involve artists, musicians, and scholars creatively exploring scale. Jay Gandhi and Ehren Hanson, veterans of the series, will perform on two petite instruments—bansuri and tabla—for a grand finale to the series.
To all of our performers over the past three years: thank you for sharing your talent, your ingenuity, and your stories with us.
Related Event
Moroccan Court Music Series: Jay Gandhi and Ehren Hanson
Friday, July 22, 6–7 pm
The Met Fifth Avenue - Gallery 456
Free with Museum admission
Related Links
Met Blogs: View blog posts related to the Moroccan Court Music Series.
MetMedia: "Building the Moroccan Court"