Banjo in Beirut
“We were inspired to present a concert here that involved your American banjo & guitar, Arabic oud, piano, Chinese pipa, and Arabic improvisational voice—a unique combination most likely unprecedented in Lebanon.”
During the Arab Spring of 2011, Michael Miles travelled to Beirut to collaborate with school children in a concert about peace; to deliver a lecture to the American University of Beirut entitled “Seventy-Five Years of American Music (1900-1975);” and to present a collaborative concert at the university’s assembly hall entitled “Stringed Vibrations: The Banjo in Conversation with the Oud and Pipa.”
These events represented a collaboration with the American University of Beirut, the Wellspring Learning Academy in Beirut, and the Global Voices Initiative of which Miles serves as Music Director.
This is the 3rd of Miles’ musical diplomacy tours characterized by international music collaboration, free concerts, and outreach to school children and families. Miles states that, “if the world has any hope, it is on the shoulders of art and culture.” And as Elisabeth Millard, US Counsel General to Morocco, said that musicians like Michael Miles are among “the best ambassadors the United States can have.”
The videos on this page portray some of the artistic collaboration that took place. There were improvisational exchanges with both oud and traditional Arabic vocalese mejana.
Clawhammer banjo performance of original composition, Chicago Trilogy, by Michael J. Miles. Here he is in Beirut and speaks to a group of students, teachers and families. with Lara Molaeb on improvisational vocals, and Ashraf el Chouli on oud.