Spring 2023 takes musicologist Dr Vanessa Paloma Elbaz on tour with visits to Centre College (a small Protestant-foundation liberal arts college in Danville, KY) and a two-day residency at Carleton College, Minnesota. Accompanying her are musicians Mostafa Benhmad and Abdallah Hachami, travelling from France and Morocco for this purpose. Each has amassed decades of experience. Together their repertoire will span centuries.
On Tuesday 25 April, Dr Paloma Elbaz delivers a lecture on Jewish--Muslim encounters in Spanish and Moroccan music at Centre College. The next evening, she and her companion musicians will give a concert at the Coombs Warehouse in Danville. (They will also air a similar repertoire for an audience in Lexington, KY, on Sunday 30 April.)
The following week, Yaron Klein (Associate Professor of Arabic & Senior Lecturer in Oud at Carleton College) hosts Dr Paloma Elbaz (& co) for a multi-faceted programme. During her Andalusi Music Residency, Vanessa will spend time with students learning Hebrew and Arabic, and scrutinise her own work with graduate students at a capstone seminar. She and the other musicians will also co-host a jam session with student musicians. This in addition to a focused session with oud-students, and an evening concert.
About Dr Paloma Elbaz
Vanessa Paloma Elbaz's research captures the movement of traditional music across the strait of Gibraltar. Her work on the oral history of Spanish and Moroccan Jewish women has been ground-breaking and shed new light on the living legacies of Andalusian music and stories. The archive she curates to preserve and analyse the soundscape of Morocco's Jewish community has been reported in the New York Times. She is a member of the Cambridge Interfaith Research Forum.
Further information about these events
For more information about the events at Carleton College, please contact Prof Yaron Klein.
For events in Danville, please visit the Centre College website.
The itinerary is supported by multiple sources, including a grant from the Jewish Heritage Foundation (organised with Centre College's Religion Program).