By Alicia Doyle
Academy Award-winning composer Yuval Ron of The Yuval Ron Ensemble will present “Mystical Music of the Middle East” on Wednesday at Oxnard College.
The ensemble includes Arabic, Jewish and Christian artists who perform sacred music of Judaism, Sufism and the Armenian church.
Ron, of Studio City, said he hoped to inspire the audience.
“Our society today is so focused on materialism and technology that we are rapidly destroying our plant and our humanity. My work and the music that we present does the opposite.”
The performance will feature a trio composed of Israel-Yemenite singer Maya Haddi; Jamie Papish, who plays percussion instruments from the Middle East, Morocco and Spain; and Ron on the oud, a Middle Eastern lute which is the predecessor of the guitar.
“We will perform music from Andalusia, which was the foundation for the flamenco music gypsies created, (plus) music from Israel, Turkey and Yemen,” Ron said.
The showwill include “historical, philosophical and religious insights, plus storytelling that amuse the imagination,” Ron said. The music will be performed on ancient instruments that are predecessors of contemporary strings and percussion instruments.
His performance is part of the Oxnard College Literature Arts & Lecture Series sponsored by Oxnard College.
“Yuval and his ensemble perform spiritual music drawing from several different traditions from the Middle East and Spain. This music goes back centuries,” said Shelley Savren, an English professor and the faculty coordinator for the series. “Yuval is essentially uniting Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions through sacred music and in doing so, is promoting peace.”
