America's Other Orchestras: Arab American Ensemble Series Episode 1
The Multi-Ethnic Star Orchestra Reaches for the Stars
BY: Sami Asmar/Contributing Writer
Traditional Arab music does not follow the strict format of a Western orchestra. Instead, ensembles of varying sizes and configurations suited to the nature of Arab style and instruments are commonplace. At least this used to be the case until the 1990s when several Arab governments invested in forming Western-style national orchestras. In many cases, a large number of the musicians or directors were hired from other countries, but this still provided the needed boasting rights.
In about the same period in California, with a population comparable to some Arab countries, a grass-root orchestra was established by a visionary Arab American artist who could combine the traditions of many ethnic musical genres and those of Western classical traditions. Maestro Nabil Azzam created the Multi-Ethnic Star Orchestra (MESTO) and, in a about a decade, already fostered new genres of musical expressions not heard before.
Born and educated in Nazareth, a region with a long history of producing talented artists, MESTO’s director moved to Los Angeles where he completed a PhD in music from UCLA and worked as a composer and virtuoso violin performer. Bilingual in Western classic music as well as Arab music, with specialty in the art of the late Egyptian legend Muhammad ‘Abd al-Wahhab, he innovatively cross-pollinated the two styles.
To get a better appreciation of this, listen to samples at their YouTube channel where selections of their many concerts are captured. In addition to the exciting concerts, MESTO has recorded several available albums of their work, many include compositions by Nabil Azzam as well as MESTO-unique orchestration of Arab classics.
The large orchestra is made up of primarily professional American musicians with a few Arab American members on traditional instruments such as the oud, nay, or buzuq. Watching Americans perform complex Arab music with the feeling of tarab (enchantment) and mastery of the microtonal system of Arab maqamat is very moving. As a multi-cultural metropolitan, Los Angeles embraced MESTO and gave it a series of successes in large concert halls. But this did not stop at the local community level. International recognition quickly followed. Over the years, MESTO was sponsored to perform at the best music festivals in Egypt, Jordan, Oman and the Emirates. Another international tour is planned for this year likely to feature Muhammad Assaf, the hugely popular Palestinian winner of the Arab Idol competition. On many of his overseas trips, Nabil Azzam has received very high honors, medals and awards.
MESTO collaborates with many distinguished singers and guest performers of the highest caliber from the US and around the world. One of the most popular headliners is the amazing Moroccan singer Karima Skalli, who has collaborated with MESTO many times in the US and during overseas tours. She particularly shines in songs of Um Kulthum and Asmahan and has personal interest in sufi meditative material with which she occasionally surprises her audiences.
The personal friendship between the director and the late ‘Abd al-Wahhab gives the latter’s compositions a special place in MESTO’s repertoire, which large and varied and is still growing with creative ideas. Fairuz and Rahbani material is also very popular. In addition to vocals and contemporary compositions, MESTO also often performs classical compositions such as samaiis, an instrumental style associated with Ottoman court music and adopted by Arab conservatoires as the high standard tool for training musicians in the maqam modal system, but, of course, with the MESTO touch.
With its Western-orchestra format, MESTO has made Arab music, as well as music from many regions of the world, a lot more accessible to Western audiences. The beauty, sophistication, and so-called “exotic flavors” of Arab music based on Eastern melodic and rhythmic systems have become more appreciated by music connoisseurs in the US and worldwide due to the efforts of artists such as this truly Star orchestra. This is a huge service provided on behalf of the Arab culture. One recent concert was opened by surprise voice greeting from Beirut by the famous composer (Fairuz’s brother-in-law) Elias Rahbani who concluded his message with: when music becomes the true universal language, peace will spread throughout the Earth!