Middle East

ouds and grass-roots in abu dhabi.

Sana Munasifi touches on a great point in her recent review of the Fifth Annual Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Festival. She highlights the recently opened Abu Dhabi branch of the Arabian Oud House as an example of the type of grass-roots, ground-up, regionally relevant and contextual initiative (= investment) that may ultimately produce results (= returns) with more significant impact than those from grand Saadiyat like projects.
The way I see it, why not do both if you have the means to? And I imagine Abu Dhabi has the means to do almost anything it wants.
I sensed an outcry amongst the Dubai cultural movers and shakers when Saadiyat was launched which I always found astonsihing. For years the standard art-opening conversations included rants on the regional governments’ lack of investment and interest in the Arts & Culture industry. Yet when Abu Dhabi announces the biggest Arts & Culture project undertaken in modern times, there is a backlash about the way the money is being spent (trophy-museums, blatant tourism projects, unoriginal etc). As someone who has been active on a grass-roots level in the burgeoning regional culture scenes I have always believed that the most interesting movements and developments emerge through individuals and small groups and that these ground-up movements would benefit from a larger cultural eco-system which the mega projects planned in Abu Dhabi and Doha and Dubai will undoubtedly provide.

Naseer Shamma -
Back to Sana’s article, she raves about a new find for me: Iraqi Oud player Naseer Shamma:

“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.”

And she makes lots of great observations- my favorite:
“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).”

I am a real believer in Abu Dhabi, I think it (along with Doha) will be a fascinating global city in a few decades. Mohamed Bin Zayed and Hamad Bin Khalifa are currently the Middle East’s most interesting leaders.

© 2008 MBAs, Media & the Middle East..