The Middle Eastern Ensemble prepares for its Spring concert with Moroccan musicians on Friday, March 30th
Since its founding in 1994, the William and 玛丽 Middle Eastern Music Ensemble has hosted multiple guest artists from a variety of traditions. This Spring they welcome musicians travelling from abroad for the first time. Professor Jonathan Glasser has been playing with the ensemble since his arrival in Williamsburg in 2006. This year, as part of his new tenure track position in Anthropology, he has been able to use professional development funds to support the residency of Nasreddine Chaabane and Amina Bensaad, musicians he worked with while doing fieldwork in Oujda, Morocco.
The ensemble’s director Anne Rasmussen said, “Most new faculty at William and 玛丽 use start-up funds for equipment, materials, or their own research. It’s unique that Professor Glasser is using his professional development funds to invite his musical colleagues from Morocco. The ensemble has been hard at work learning a full program of ‘Andalusi’ repertoire and we are very excited to host these musicians. The ensemble has hosted over 20 guest artists, but we’ve never had the opportunity for such a long residency. We will all be speaking Arabic by the time they leave!”
The Ensemble will work with Nasreddine and Amina for two weeks of rehearsal and workshops in preparation for their concert on Friday March 30th. Professor Glasser said, “Nasreddine 
Chth at 8pm.
