BY Samir Twair

        The Multi Ethnic Star Orchestra (MESTO) has performed in Cairo and Amman and on May 13, it was featured in Abu Dhabi’s “Rhythms from Arabia” festival in the emirate’s dazzling Abu Dhabi Theater.  The 45-member orchestra was transported from Los Angeles to the Gulf by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage.

        MESTO appeared on the seventh evening of the 11-day festival and immediately conductor Dr. Nabil Azzam was interviewed by major TV hosts in the Arab media who wanted to know more about his successful efforts to keep classic Arab music alive in the U.S.

        Moroccan singer Karima Skalli joined the Los Angeles orchestra which performed signature pieces of Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab and Farid al-Atrash as well as original compositions of Maestro Azzam.

        Dr. Azzam, who is from Nazareth and earned his Ph.D. degree in music at UCLA in 1990, wrote his doctoral dissertation on the works of Abd al-Wahhab whom he studied under in Cairo. A favorite of the audience was his violin solo from Abd al-Wahhab’s Unshudat al-Fann.

        Favorites sung by Skalli included Ya Habibi Ta’ala, LaMush Ana, and Inta ‘Umri. Al-Atrash’s Banadi Alaik was performed along with Abd al-Wahhab’s  “My Beloved Country” and “Eternal River.”

        Critics raved over the sensitive rendering of classic Arab compositions by non-Arab musicians who have been working under the baton of Dr. Azzam for a decade. The Abu Dhabi performance gave Dr. Azzam and his wife, Suheir, the opportunity to visit with their son, Salim, who is an international attorney based in the Emirate.

        MESTO will present its fall concert Oct. 30 in Zipper Hall, Downtown Los Angeles and a winter performance Dec. 3 in Santa Monica’s Broad Theater. Azzam’s new CD, “Full Moon” has just been released and another, entitled “Eclipse,” is slated for August.  For more information, please go to www.mesto.org.

BY Mike Nally

The Miss Asia USA Fashion Extravaganza held July 18 at the Sheraton Universal Hotel had a decidedly Middle Eastern flavor to it. The fun, energetic, and exciting runway show featured the traditional, lavish parade of national costumes. The spectacular outfits and dress were worn by young women representing such countries as Lebanon (Natalia DiNatale, 19), Armenia (Trayfena Zambre, 16), Iran (Jasmine Naziri, 19 as well as Saghar Sadri, 24), and Kyrgyzstan (Elvira Osmonova, 26). Other traditional Asian countries with contestants or delegates included the Philippines, Cambodia, Japan, Indonesia, China, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Vietnam, Korea, Taiwan, and even a couple of young women representing Mongolia. The runway show also featured sassy collections from SCALA, InVein Clothing designer line, and BG Haute. And for the always sensational swimsuit competition, the young ladies wore Malibu Dream Girl. The entertainment between change of wardrobe included young singers, a 13 year old Mongolian body contortionist, and a belly dancer called Flower from Glendale. Flower was dressed in what I would call an Oakland Raiders (black & silver beaded) harem outfit, and when she shook those curvy hips of hers in rapid succession, you felt the motion! Cal Tech reported small tremors in the Burbank/Pasadena area. The Fashion show held at the Sheraton is a prelude to the Miss Asia USA 2010 pageant which will be held on Saturday, August 21, 2010 at the La Mirada Performing Arts Theater. Miss Asia USA is the premiere cultural pageant for Asian women (at least 25% Asian ancestry, naturally born female 16 years old and up, never married or had any children) who can trace their ancestry to the 58 countries considered part of the Asian continent. According to pageant promoter, Virgelia Villegas, one of the goals is “to unite the 58 countries and regions of the Asian continent in a friendly competition which promotes leadership, personal growth, camaraderie, and strengthens cultural values.” The 30 some delegates in this year’s pageant go through rigorous rehearsals, training workshops in poise, walking, modeling, public speaking, fashion and wardrobe coordination, goal setting, and interview skills. The contestants also listen to motivational speakers to inspire self-confidence, and help the young women to be the epitome of beauty, elegance, intelligence, class, and grace. For competing, the contestants get to keep three sets of swimwear, a beautiful cocktail dress, rhinestone shoes, embroidered sash, beauty and hair products from James Albert Beauty Salon as well as a $9,500 scholarship from Albert. Back in 2007, Hanin Hawatneh (18 years old, 5′7) was one of the first young women to represent Jordan, and was sponsored by. Dr. Grewal of Valenica and Amani Carpets of W. Hollywood. Remarked Hawatneh at that pageant: “The experience of representing my country, Jordan, with pride and honor was beyond amazing!” Another contestant, boistered by the esteem of participating in the Miss Asia USA pageant, reiterated a famous quote: “Don’t tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon.

” For show ticket information you can call 818-891-5556 or e-mail: info@MissAsiaUSA.org.

By Toufic Haddad, Jerusalem

Courtesy of The Electronic Intifada

Cartoonist Naji al-Ali was a towering figure in the Palestinian cultural and political scene. His daily political drawings were a knife-twisting, gut-wrenching journey into how Palestinians perceived their predicament. Each drawing taps into hidden reservoirs of forbidden ideas and feelings — all somehow related to the unfulfilled expectations of the Palestinian national movement and the larger struggle for Arab self-determination. Read the full story

By Jessica Abu-Ghattas

Contributing Editor

After more than one month of rehearsals, The Santa Monica College/Community Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Jim Martin, played its premiere concert on Oct. 11 to audience acclaim.

“I thought [it was] the best we’ve done at any reading of the music,” viola player Wynn Battig said.

The orchestra played “Water Music” by George Frideric Handel and “Symphony No. 4, ‘Tragic’ in C minor” by Franz Schubert before the intermission. It returned accompanied by piano soloist Nora Chiang for Ludwig Van Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, opus 15.”

The concert took place at The Edye Second Space in the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, which features an additional venue, the World Stage.

“I wish it would have started on time,” oboe player Kathrine French said. “After that, it went well.”

French, who has played the oboe for 19 years, is a community member of the orchestra.

The performance received positive acclaim by audience members and performers alike.

“I felt we rose to the occasion,” cellist Julie Standing said. “The [piano] soloist was fabulous.”

SMC faculty member, concertmaster and first violinist Martine Verhoeven said there are only two things she would have changed about the concert: That she and several other instrumentalists were sick with a cold, and an audible mistake during the piece by Beethoven.

“We laughed about it,” Verhoeven said. She said they learned that “you cannot change things at the end.”

The concertmaster was also impressed by Chiang, calling her “exact” and “sensitive.”

Verhoeven teaches the strings class at SMC and is currently in her 12th year of teaching.

It was international student Kazune Okuyama’s first time joining the orchestra for a performance. His grandparents traveled from Japan to attend.

The first chair violinist has been playing for 10 years.

“I have practice for one hour every day,” Okuyama said. “[But] I had to prepare my feelings for this concert.”

The music impressed SMC students from conductor Martin’s Scholar’s Music 32 class.

“We came to listen to Handel’s ‘The Water Music,’” student Diana Elihu said. “It’s different to hear it than to study it so we find that really interesting.”

Her colleagues shared her respect for the music.

“The music selection and the way it moves through the pieces was interesting,” Linda Elihu said. She described the music as “powerful and sweet.”

Audience members praised the selections.

“That performance was great,” Ernest Perez said. “I thought the arrangements were incredible.”

The performance was especially noteworthy for young piano student Tiggy Menkir, whose piano teacher, Chiang, was the piano soloist.

“We’re looking forward to the pianist,” said Menkir’s mother Roman Farede, a professor at SMC.

Menkir has played some pieces by Beethoven and looked forward to hearing a professional rendition.

Concert-goers also took notice of the venue.

“It’s my first time at this venue,” Perez said. “The acoustics here are incredible. We’re very impressed.”

Student Linda Elihu appreciated the set-up of the theater.

“We have college as well as professional programming,” World Stage assistant house manager Louis Fiol said.

The SMC Performing Arts Center, under the artistic direction of alumni Dustin Hoffman, has featured performances by opera singer Placido Domingo in addition to Tony award-winning acts. It will also host SMC Orchestra’s future performances.

The orchestra’s next concert will be Dec. 12, 2009 at the SMC Performing Arts Center.

Published in The Independent Monitor November 2009 issue.

By Pat McDonnell Twair

 If artist Huguette Caland had a theme song, it would have to be “I Did It My Way.”

In 1945, when she was 13, Caland witnessed her father Bechara el-Khoury’s inauguration as the first president of Lebanon. She broke family conventions in 1952 when she married Paul Caland, the nephew of the publisher of the pro-French daily Le Jour, a competitor of her uncle’s pro-independence daily, L’Orient. Read the full story

Juliet Blalack

 Guest Writer

The Arab Film Festival showcased three different films this year that shed light on gay life in the Arab World, and broke new ground in the festival’s reach. Read the full story

Courtesy of Levantine Cultural Center

Los Angeles, October 6, 2009– One of the biggest issues facing America today is how to engage the people of the Middle East and Muslim World. President Obama made that clear to the world in his historic Cairo speech this past July. But how can we hope to foster cross-cultural peace overseas when we know so little of the Arab population in our own backyard? Read the full story

By D. W. Aossey

Staff Writer

 A new biography titled “The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America” has recently hit book stores, and once again the term “crusade” appears in the title of another product of America’s conservative media. In the case of President Theodore Roosevelt, however, it’s indeed appropriate, for the legacy of our 26th president is a controversial one; one that involves the confiscation of some of America’s most resource rich land holdings. And it is a legacy that reveals just how closely the land policies of the Capitalist State of America and the Zionist State of Israel are intertwined. Read the full story

By Michael Gillespie

Contributing Editor

In the first part of a program he hopes will enhance interfaith relations and expand the interfaith conversation locally, Rev. Matthew Mardis-LeCroy, Minister of Spiritual Growth at Plymouth Congregational Church in Des Moines, led a group of about 40 people in discussion following a screening of Beyond Our Differences on Sept. 15. Read the full story

By Pat McDonnell Twair

Contributing Editor

Museums customarily showcase paintings and sculptures by the masters, archaeological treasures or religious icons. However at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, MI, a special niche exhibits a simple handmade map that is unique for being the only map drawn from memory by a Palestinian expelled from his village. Read the full story