The Middle Eastern Festival Brings Tigran Hamasyan to Berklee
The Signature Series at Berklee continues on March 8 with the ninth annual Berklee Middle Eastern Festival. This year’s edition features...
Ep #55 with Christiane Karam, singer and composer. Christiane Karam grew up in Lebanon during the war and is a true musical force of nature. She directs a Balkan choir, started a Middle Eastern music festival after 9/11, speaks 4 languages and teaches at the Berklee School Of Music. She is a very expressive and soulful singer and works with some great collaborators.
Are you curious about the healing benefits of Music?
One of this year’s featured artists is renowned Bosnian vocalist Amira Medunjanin and her band, which will perform music from its new album Ascending. Medunjanin, a singer, humanitarian, and global ambassador for the culture and music of her native Bosnia and Herzegovina and the wider Balkan region, has been described as “one of the great voices of her generation” by Observer, with a sound that “hovers enticingly between East and West,” according to Uncut.
"When I sat with Christiane, she told me about her Lebanese roots and how music preserved her from the war at the time. "I always knew that a lot of answers would come to me through my voice. "
One of the highlights of my music career so far has been the chance to work with Christiane Karam directly on this remix.
The evening opened with a traditional folk song performed by Elitsa Stoyneva and Christiane Karam. This talented pair of vocalists were a terrific choice to kick off the night’s performances.
The MMI Recordings is launching two new albums to finish this school year. Christiane Karam and the Pletenitsa Balkan Choir features more than 40 student performers as well as the Berklee World Strings directed by Eugene Friesen, and Layth & Naseem is the first release by Jordanian violinist Layth Sidiq and Palestinian cellist Naseem Alatrash.
"I grew up in the midst of armed conflict and I can still remember the roar of bombs, she says. Therefore, it is important for me to bring people together, to create an environment in which they communicate, seek common ground between different cultures. In this respect, art has priceless opportunities. I am grateful that I am a musician.
I believe musicians have a secret mission in the world - to unite people and to create beauty out of diversity"
Berklee will present the 10th annual Berklee Middle Eastern Festival on Thursday, March 1, as part of its Signature Series. Founded and directed by Christiane Karam B.M. ‘03, associate professor in the Voice Department, the festival brings together guest artists, community musicians, Berklee students, visual artists, and dancers from all over the world to celebrate the music of the Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Mediterranean.
On Monday, March 3rd beginning at 8:15 pm, the Berklee Performance Center will host the Berklee Middle Eastern Festival: The Music of Armenia. The festival's founder and director, Christiane Karam, is an assistant professor in voice, ensemble and songwriting at Berklee and a resident of Back Bay. She chose this year's Armenian theme in honor of her own Armenian heritage
Името й е Кристиан Карам, но в България всички я наричат Кристиане или Кристианчето. Така се чувствам специална, приятно ми е, че името ми си има български варианти – казва тя. Кристиане е преподавател в Бъркли колидж, певица, организатор на фестивал, лидер на различни музикални формации. В момента е ко-водещ на майсторски клас по пеене по покана на своя учител и кумир Боби Макферин.
“I deeply believe in music’s endless potential to connect us with one another and bring us to this peaceful place of oneness from where we all come… Sound is vibration, and the human voice in particular, when sung from a place of truth, has an incredibly intimate and healing ability to communicate emotion, tell a story, and transform lives."
Над 200 деца, младежи и възрастни участват в Осмата международна лятна академия „Огънят на Орфей” 2014, която се провежда от 7 до 20 август в Разлог. Академията успя да обедини участници от България, Австрия, Русия, САЩ, Сърбия, Македония, Полша, Холандия, Швейцария, Германия.
Growing up in Beirut during Lebanon’s Civil War, Christiane Karam B.M. '03 sometimes couldn’t practice the piano because the room the instrument was in was too exposed to bombs. Though she heard their explosions, she also heard other sounds that brought seemingly divided cultures together.
Американска джаз певица от арменски произход, събира певци от цял свят за да изпълняват балкански фолклор в Америка. Кристиан Карам е създател на хор за българска и балканска музика „Плетеница”.
„Всеки един преживян красив миг обединява хората.“ Тези думи на Криситане Карам(Бостън, САЩ) останаха в съзнанието ми в първите часове след срещата с нея. В интервюто по-долу етноджаз певицата разкрива музикално и словесно възгледите си за ролята на изкуството.
Christiane Karam ’03 is the champion of world music at Berklee as the director of the Balkan choir, the Middle Eastern Fusion ensemble, and the annual Berklee Middle Eastern Festival, of which she is also the founder.
Berklee Latino, the Mediterranean Music Institute (MMI), and Instituto Cervantes, in collaboration with the HispanoAmerican consulates present a free concert celebrating the Miguel de Cervantes anniversary.
He conocido a una chica de la que me gustaría hablaros. Se llama Christiane. Por cierto, cuando le pregunté por su religión se me quedó mirando como si no fuera obvia dado su nombre ¡Qué despiste! Bueno al grano.
Berklee College of Music presents its second annual Middle Eastern Festival on Monday, February 8,
Last Monday, the Middle Eastern Festival took place at the BPC, joining artists from the Mediterranean region with students from all over the world performing music from their homelands.
Christiane Karam, assistant professor of Voice/Ensemble and Songwriting, and founder and co-director of Berklee’s Middle Eastern Music Festival, writes about the upcoming festival, and shares a rehearsal video.
The Signature Series at Berklee continues with the fourth annual Middle Eastern Festival, an event that joins artists from the Middle East, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean with students from all over the world to perform traditional and inspiring music from their homelands.
An audience at the Cochran Chapel welcomed Musicians, Sergio, Odair Assad Odair, Clarice Assad, Keita Ogawa and Christiane Karam to perform Brazilian and Lebanese music at a concern this past Friday.
ZilZALA is a world music ensemble that is steeped in Arabic and Balkan traditions but that seeks to include and blend with different musical cultures, both traditional and contemporary.
American vocal wonder Bobby MсFerrin, the author of the all-time hit "Don't Worry, Be Happy", came to Moscow to stage a unique improv opera with a group of world-famous musicians.
“One of the last frontiers is the human brain,” said Robert J. Zatorre, neuroscientist at McGill University. “Music serves as a gateway to understanding human cognition.”
Lebanon native Vocalist/Composer Christiane Karam's unique style stems from her love for different musical traditions.
It has been written about Brazilian guitarists Sergio and Odair Assad that no amount of expectation prepares an audience for their perfectly synchronized style of musical interplay
The Berklee Balkan vocal ensemble was founded by Christiane Karam in 2011, as a means to explore the choral traditions and folk music adaptations of the Balkans, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and parts of the Mediterranean.
I came to the Berklee College of Music in Boston when I was twenty-six, excited but also apprehensive about starting over after years working in Beirut.
Berklee presented an impressive preview for its first-ever Middle Eastern music festival on February 18: an intense clinic with Lebanese oud and nay expertBassam Saba.
Thousands of people gathered in New York’s Central Park on Saturday for the “Istanbulive: The Sounds and Colors of Turkey” concert
2003 alumna and faculty member Christiane Karam is the champion of world music at Berklee. She directs the Balkan choir, the Middle Eastern Fusion ensemble, and is the founder and director of the annual Berklee Middle Eastern Festival.
Led by award-winning vocalist/composer Christiane Karam, the ZilZALA
Middle Eastern Ensemble is a Boston-based World Music group that draws from several musical
cultures to re-interpret classical, traditional and folk Arabic and Balkan Music.
Swingin' in Mothers Rest will feature renowned world music performers Christiane Karam and the ZilZALA Ensemble and Gian Aurelio Faraone and his quartet
The Rockford Coronado Concert Association invited “Sergio & Odair Assad & Friends” to perform Friday for its last event of the season.
Sergio and Odair Assad have moved audiences and inspired guitarists around the world for over 30 years
I have two new loves, cottage cheese and Middle Eastern Music. Last night's show at the Berklee
Performance Center far exceeded the obligatory
'I have to see my friend's show' kind of evening.
By Erica Leigh
From a turbulent childhood, she has become a leading figure in world music, creating new bonds in cultural understanding.
“I think it’s a very eye-opening and mind-opening idea to reach out and include musicians and musical stars from different cultures,” said Christiane Karam, who teaches several groups, including the Middle Eastern Fusion Ensemble and Eastern Vocal Styles Ensemble, at Berklee. She says multicultural music can be incredibly rich and powerful when done well, which is not always easy.