Middle Eastern Modal Process & Modulation

Tue, Dec 9, 2025 at 5:00pm – 6:00pmPST

Event Type:

Interactive Arts Exploration
(Online)

Program:

SPARKS Exchange

Featuring:

Abdessamad Mason Zantow

Organizers:

Center for Process Studies

This SPARKS Exchange will feature a brief exposition of maqām (Middle Eastern modal) music focusing on Tanburi Cemil Bey’s “Hicazkâr Saz Semai” as a template for appreciation of the unique process of modulation that is prevalent in Middle Eastern music. Abdessamad Mason Zantow will present on the lâvta (Istanbul lute), an instrument played by Tanburi Cemil Bey and a cousin of the oud and modern guitar.

Abdessamad is a core member of Ensemble Shamaali, a small Wisconsin-based Middle Eastern music ensemble that seeks to bring classical Arabic and Turkish music to audiences in a contemporary and unique manner. You can listen to Ensemble Shamaali’s music here.

SPARKS Exchange is a monthly online gathering that features a presentation by and dialogue with an artist, as well as an interactive art exchange in which attendees have the opportunity to participate in an activity that sparks their creativity. Click here to learn more about or join the SPARKS Cohort.

Featuring

Abdessamad Mason Zantow

Abdessamad Mason Zantow is a performer on the oud, lâvta (Istanbul lute) and buzuq (Arab bouzouki) as well as a singer of Muwashshah (Arabo-Andalusian secular and Sufi love poetry) and Turkish ilahi (Sufi songs) and other works from the Ottoman classical tradition. After forming several musical projects spanning from popular genres to the avant-garde, he eventually traveled to Varanasi, India where he studied Hindustani classical music and Qawwali. He has a BA in Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin. He has had many formative music teachers including his late Uncle Thomas Zantow, Eric Ederer, Evgenios Voulgaris and most recently Ustadh Khaled Alhafez who is a master performer of the Muwashshah from Aleppo, Syria.

Watch the Recording

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