Quote: Originally posted by John Erlich  | | Quote: Originally posted by Edward6311 | John,
I’m a Syrian living in Portland, Oregon. We have a decent size community here. I am a member of the Syrian Lebanese American club here in Portland
and we have parties “hafleys” quite often for various occasions. Sometimes with live Arabic music. I have been taking Oud lessons with a great
teacher who luckily is not located far from me. I was exposed to the Oud by uncles of mine who played. I love being part of the Syrian, Lebanese
community in Portland. It’s like a large extended family. My children also feel blessed to belong to such a great Arabic community. We love getting
together and are always available to help each other when needed.
Edward |
Thanks for sharing, Edward! When I was in Portland a couple summers ago (2016), I happened upon the Portland Persian festival. Have you had any
contact with that community? They seem to have a music school in a nearby suburb. |
I live in Portland and was at the Persian festival last weekend. The music school you mention is called "ArtMax" (http://www.artmax.org) and is run by Hossein Salehi, a santoor player from Iran. His son Bobak plays violin and Kamanche. The website lists
Portland oud player and guitarist Nat Hulskamp as its oud instructor. Nat also teaches oud privately. I've been meaning to sign up for some lessons
with him myself, but the combination of work, parenting a small child, and other musical activities have kept this on the back burner... Hopefully in
the coming year...
As Edward mentions, there is a small but tight-knit MENA community here in Portland. A number of Lebanese came between the mid-70s and early -90s
fleeing the civil war, and there are some good Lebanese-run restaurants and markets here as a result. I've also met a number of people living here
from Syria, Palestine, Israel, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Libya, and Morocco. The Muslim Educational Trust, which I got connected with through interfaith work
with my synagogue, does outstanding work both creating connection within Portland's diverse and growing Muslim community and also doing outreach to
the wider community.
I teach ESL to international students at a local liberal arts college, and most of my Arab students are Saudi, Kuwaiti, or occasionally Emirati. Most
of them don't play traditional Arabic music, but they seem impressed when I mention that I'm learning the oud and I rattle off names of classic Arab
musicians and singers that their grandparents probably listened to. I did have a qanun player once, and last year, I had a student who confided in me
that he had tried to learn oud in secret, but his father found out and smashed it. A few of my students have been good sources of listening
suggestions, both for traditional music and modern Arabic pop.
Given its size, reputation, and other vibrant ethnic music scenes here, I'm surprised that there isn't more going on here and that Middle Eastern
& related music isn't more popular. There are occasionally musicians who play for belly dancers in a few restaurants and clubs, but it doesn't
seem that there's much else on a regular basis. I was friends with an absolutely brilliant drummer from Turkey who was equally talented on Western
drum kit and Turkish percussion and obsessed with old recordings of Ottoman classical music, but that was before I got bit by the oud bug, and he's
since moved to Seattle, unfortunately. I imagine there are a number of other closet players like myself under the radar--and maybe more experienced
players as well. I've heard that there have been Arabic & Turkish music workshops around here in the past, but it doesn't seem like there's the
momentum to organize much these days.
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, if we want!
Great Baklava! There are also two hookah lounges here. 