Arabic Music Appreciation

Arabic Music Appreciation
A Seminar and Performance 
by Dr. George D. Sawa on Qanun, and Suzanne M. Sawa on Percussion

Dr. George Sawa was born in Alexandria, Egypt. He has over 50 years of experience in Arabic music performance, history and theory. He has performed and lectured globally. He studied qanun, theory and voice at the Higher Institute of Arabic Music. In Canada, he studied ethnomusicology and holds a doctorate in historical Arabic musicology from the University of Toronto. His teaching practice at the University of Toronto and York University include courses on medieval, modern and religious music of the Middle East. His publication record is extensive. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Egyptian Ministry of Culture in 2005 in recognition of his research in Arabic music history. Dr. Sawa was the director of several productions of the Toronto-based Arabesque Dance Company, and he has taught hundreds of students of bellydance.

Suzanne Sawa was born in Cleveland, and studied piano performance at Wittenberg University in Ohio. She earned masters degrees at the University of Toronto in both musicology and library science. In addition to working as a music librarian, Ms. Sawa studied classical Arabic in Toronto and Arabic percussion in Egypt. She is a longtime member of the Traditional Arabic Music Ensemble and a percussionist with Alpharabius, a group exploring the connection between Western medieval music and Arabic music. Her current writing project is a book of annotated translations featuring medieval stories about women musicians.

Thursday, March 2nd, 12:00 - 1:00pm
LIB404, Archives & Special Collections, TMU Libraries, 350 Victoria St