ORCHESTRAL PLEASURES | May 8th 2008

Naseer Shamma "Oriental Orchestra"

Abu Dhabi is eager to become an international centre for the arts. But instead of importing orchestras and ballet troupes, it would do well to invest in regional traditions, Sana Munasifi writes. Naseer Shamma and his oud could point the way ...

Special to MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE

"My heart has melted from love's suffering many times over" crooned Khalid Selim, an Egyptian pop singer and heartthrob. Performing at the Fifth Annual Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Festival, his smooth voice undulated alongside an orchestra of Middle Eastern instruments. "Many times I've seen light as darkness. Many times I've wished for happiness. Many times!" The orchestra, led by Naseer Shamma, an Iraqi oud player, then paused, dramatising the beautiful woes of "Without Blame", a regional hit from the 1950s. The audience was rapt by this 11-minute revival. It was an auspicious mix of tradition and something fresh.

The nine-day festival featured a range of international artists, with concerts from London Philharmonic, and solo performances from Sarah Chang, a Korean-American violinist, and Anna Netrebko and Erwin Schrott, both opera singers (she's a Russian soprano, he's a Uruguayan baritone). Artists performed for nearly full houses at the 1,200-seat theatre at the Emirates Palace. (Empty seats were a result of corporate no-shows, according to the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation, which organised the festival.)

The festival, like much in the Emirates, was rife with status symbols. Seating sections included VIP, VVIP and Pearl and Diamond seating (I'm still unsure which was more elite). VVIPs and the festival's founders frequently delayed performances with their red-carpet entrances and photo opportunities. Hoda Ibrahim Al Khamis-Kanoo, who began the festival, remains mum about the budget--"Art is expensive," she says coyly when pressed. But the government, the main sponsor, clearly spared no expense. This year the venue was moved from the more modest Cultural Foundation to the Emirates Palace, an enormous luxury hotel. Gilded, palatial and covered in pink marble, it is also home to one of the city's swankiest new clubs, "Embassy."

The government evidently splurged on the performers, too. According to the Bolshoi Ballet, which participated, their orchestra travels only when venues either lack local musicians or pay the expenses of some 200 troupe members. (Abu Dhabi boasted both criteria.) Though they grumbled that they weren't put up at the decadent Emirates Palace.

Peppered throughout this international programme were plenty of regional artists, notably Mr Shamma, an oud player and composer, who has performed at the festival since its inception. The oud, invented around 4,000 years ago, is traditionally played by soloists or in small groups, much like the Spanish guitar. But unlike the guitar, it lacks frets to mark notes--instead, the hand slides up and down its strings, playing the extensive range typical of Middle Eastern music. This lends the instrument a minor, melancholic sound. The melodies are sad yet calming, with repetitive, hypnotic patterns.

Mr Shamma broke with oud convention with his work "Oriental Orchestra". This performance at the festival saw 67 international musicians playing 15 ouds, ten kanoons (similar to the harpsichord) and nine nays (a kind of flute), with drums, tambourines and other instruments. The concert included solos and call-and-response phrases between Mr Shamma and different instrumental groups, but most songs featured the full orchestra. The multitude of minor tones created a clangy, dissonant sound, which was, as Mr Shamma admitted, shocking in its unorthodoxy. But the jingle of the orchestra injected his compositions with new, lively personality. It was a welcome change from the regional classics performed throughout much of the rest of the festival.

Mr Shamma's involvement in the local music scene extends past the occasional festival concert. With funding from the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation, he recently opened a school for the oud in Abu Dhabi--the Arabian Oud House. Modelled after other branches in Cairo and Algeria, the school offers instruction in playing and constructing the oud to about 20 students from Arab countries. Five students performed in the "Oriental Orchestra."

The early success of Mr Shamma's school demonstrates a local hunger for learning and reviving Middle Eastern art forms. But many of the cultural initiatives so far are grand top-down, long-term projects, such as the steadily developing Saadiyat Island and its performing-arts centre designed by Zaha Hadid. And much of the culture expensively celebrated is imported from the west. The Cultural Centre does host travelling exhibits, master classes and performances, and the Ministry of Education is reviewing the curriculum for the country's national schools. But the city needs more schools like the Arabian Oud House to encourage appreciation for Middle Eastern music and promote local performances and experimentation.

"The Arabian Oud House is just that--a house, not an institute," one student notes. "You come in if you like, take one of the rooms, and play. [The school's founders] want this to be a warm atmosphere to attract you to Middle Eastern music and the oud in particular." Eager to prove its cultural importance in the world, Abu Dhabi should use this school as a model. The Emirate could be more than a collection centre for the world's greats. It could become a centre for innovation and creativity in Middle Eastern art.

(Sana Munasifi is a writer based in Abu Dhabi.)