Past Campaign
Al-Murtaja A Celebration of Sudanese Music at Berklee.
Sudan is one of the oldest civilizations known to humanity, and heir to an extremely rich tradition of musical, dramatic, and artistic expression. Yet my country has a long history of music that has not been well exposed or documented due to civil and political turmoil. I named this concert Al-Murtaja, which can be translated from Arabic as “the thing or person people are waiting for,” as this concert fulfills my wish by to bring together music from all regions of Sudan and South Sudan to create a sense of shared cultural identity..
With this concert—my senior recital—I hope to unite my personal experience as a child of Sudan with the incredible experience I have had as student at Berklee by blending my musical culture and traditions with that of the diverse community of musicians I have met at Berklee. My classmates have inspired me to expand my musical and artistic horizons, and likewise, are taking this journey with me through the music of Sudan, for which I am forever grateful.
I am honored to have four guest artists at the forefront of Sudanese music join us on stage tonight. Chief among these is my father, Abu Araki, who until rehearsals earlier this week, I had not seen in eight years. For political reasons, my father lived in exile for a number of years before I came to the states to perform as part of a Sudanese music festival, and eventually enroll at Berklee. The commitment and honesty in father’s music has been very influential in my life. My brothers and sisters and I often performed beside him when we were young. This reunion takes me full circle and brings me great joy to share with you through our music.
Also appearing are my friends Asim Gorashi, “Adarob” Mohamed Tahir, and Emmanuel Jal. Emmanuel is bringing international recognition to Sudanese music by blending western forms and is using this as a platform for human rights and world peace.
Mohamed Araki
Project Director, Producer
Abu Araki Albakhit
A grand figure of Sudanese song, Araki is an example of artistic resistance during one of the most oppressive periods of Sudan's history. Born in 1947 in Medani, he graduated from the Institute of Music and Drama in 1978, and became a popular singer on Sudanese radio and at festivals. After the rise of Sudan's Islamist government in 1989, he, like many artists, was banned because of the strong social content of his lyrics. He was arrested, and forbidden to sing in public. Undeterred, he went to Egypt and made some of his most popular recordings.
Mohamed Tahir Adarob
Mohamed Tahir Adarob
Adarob recorded the first official cassette tape of Beja songs in 1999. He has performed with the Egyptian in 2001, at the Kennedy Center in 2004, at the Save Darfur event in Washington DC in 2005, and again in Chicago on the Millennium Park stage in 2008.
Conductor:
Eren Basbug--Ankara Turkey
Drums
Yogev Gabay-- Be'er Sheva, Israel
Bass
Lucy Clifford-- Sydney, Australia
Guitars
Jacob Okumu--Nairobi, Kenya
Daniele Truocchio--Pomezia (Province of Rome) Italy
Percussions:
Dillon Zahner--Marshfield, VT, USA
Seifeddine Helal--Maxula Rades, Tunisia
Faiz Gismalla-- Wad Madani, Sudan
Piano and Synth:
Utar Artun-Ankara, Turkey
Mohamed Araki---Sudan
Horns:
Quinn Carson--Fort Smith, AR, United States
Billy Yeung-- Shenzhen China
Clay Lyons-- Madison, Wisconsin United States
Julian Dessler--Providence Rhodes Island United States
Background Singers:
Giovanni Houessou--Cotonou, Benin
Phakamani Pega--Soweto Johannesburg, South Africa
Yadriane De Angel--Carolina, Puerto Rico
Adora Makokha-- Vasteras, Sweden
Dalia Marina---San Francisco, CA, USA
Harishta Krishnan--Lagos, Nigeria
Violins:
Layth Sidiq--Amman, Jordan
Tim Reynolds ---Rome, Georgia, USA
Antoine Buex--Paris, France.
Tania Mesa--Lanzarote (Canary Islands) , Spain
Cansu Ozyurek-- Adana Turkey
Kathleen Parks--Newburgh, NY, USA
Sarah Hubbard-- Westfield, Massachusetts
Bengisu Gokce--Istanbul, Turkey
Violas:
Anna stormer--Boston, MA, USA
Guney Tamer--Adana, Turkey
Brendan Klippel--queensbury, New York, United States
Cellos:
Alberto Paolus
Naseem Alatrash--Beit Sahur, Palestine
George Crotty--Toronto, Canada
CREDITS
Production Team:
Mohamed Araki, producer and director--Sudan
Ron Wyman--Boston
Mohamed Elfadil--Sudan
Natalie Cotton--San Juan, Puerto Rico
Giuseppe Taccini--Rome Italy
Faculty Advisor
Larry Watson
Music team:
Supervisors:
Simone Scazzocchio. Italy
Utar Artun--Ankara, Turkey
Eren Basbug--Ankara Turkey
Arrangers:
Zahili Gonzalez Zamora, Manzanillo, Cuba
Ece Muniroglu--Istanbul, Turkey
Inna Dudukina--Novosibirsk, Russia
Nate Chivers--Wilbraham, Massachusetts
Witness Matlou-- South Africa
Eren Basbug--Ankara, Turkey
Transcribers:
Nate Chivers--Wilbraham, Massachusetts
Eli Roberts--Vienna, Virginia
Chris Chaloff--Boston, Massachusetts
Eren Basbug--Ankara, Turkey
George Lianopoulos-- Athens, Greece
Band Managers
Ian Miller--Hilo, Hawaii
Giovanni Houessou--Cotonou, Benin
Layth Sidiq--Amman, Jordan
Quinn Carson--Fort Smith, Arizona
Yadriane De Angel--Carolina, Puerto Rico
Executive Team
Roger Brown
Dawn Elder
Rob Rose
Tom Riley
Special Thanks to:
Berklee External Affairs
Berklee Inclusion and Diversity
Berklee Music Production and Engineering
Berklee Community Affairs Office
Berklee Student Activity Center
Berklee Liberal Arts Department
Berklee Ensemble Office
Emmanuel Jal
Jal was born into the life of a child soldier and overcame unbelievable struggles to become an internationally acclaimed hip-hop artist with a message of peace and reconciliation. He has told his story to the highest tier of several governments and was a face of Amnesty International’s 2010 World Refugee Day Campaign. A documentary on his life, Warchild, won 12 international film festival awards, and he costarred with Reese Witherspoon in the Warner Brothers' motion picture The Good Lie, which tells the story about the journey of four young Sudanese refugees to the United States. His autobiography, War Child: A Child Soldier's Story, was published in 2009.
Asim Gorashi
Asim considers music to be a ladder that takes him to the highest level of spirituality. This commanding singer combines Sudanese tribal folk music, sacred Sufi melodies, chants, and whistling, which he believes has the power to enter the secret recesses of our hearts. With a bachelor's degree in music from the University of Sudan, he has arranged more than 20 Sudanese folkloric songs in 10 different local languages and participated in numerous festivals.
Asim has also lived and worked in Cairo, where he played with the mysterious maverick of Egyptian jazz Fathy Salama. A multi instrumentalist, Asim plays the oud, violin, keyboard, Sudanese traditional tanboor, and mandolin.