Reader Lisa drew my attention to a series of concerts being organized by Jordanian musician Zade Dirani in the US, entitled Roads to you. According to the tour website:
The Roads to You tour has the potential to be a true life-changing experience for all those involved. As a grassroots effort, the tour hopes to create an understanding among the world’s different cultures on a very human level. As the tour fosters friendships built on trust and communication, it will also lay the groundwork for dialogue between the participating members. By expressing themselves in discussions and through the universal language of music, participants will have the opportunity to discuss the challenges they face in an open and safe environment.
Here is what Lisa, who is one of the musicians participating in the tour, had to say about Zade:
He is a very proud Jordanian and has a worldview about things. The best thing is that he is using what he knows best to try to make a difference in the world. With every concert he performed, I believe he has torn down a few more cultural, political and religious barriers.
The concerts will be held in DC, Houston, and Los Angeles. More information can be found here. This is a great initiative from a young Jordanian artist. I do hope I will be able to attend the event in DC this May mainly to give kudos to this young Jordanian talent. Way to go Zade!
who is zaid deirani???? he is only a guy have nice dad and mama so they gave him lot of money to play with, give the british musican and money to pay for the newspapdr then i ll make a big name for a week or may be two weeks ,, zaid just a ballon..
few days ago i bought Zade’s CD ” beautiful world” , its more than great, i cant stop playing it
good luck zade
Zade Dirani
I met Zaid Dirani at a small recital he did a few summers ago in Monterey, CA. I remember that he likened the hills around Monterey to family drives down to the Dead Sea. I totally saw the resemblance. Looking out the window and listening to him play I felt like I was back in Jordan.
He was certainly thoughtful and talented. But I have to admit – he’s cute too.
I’m in Wisconsin, where we mostly get publicity related to Chicago, the Twin Cities, and Milwaukee. Madison itself gets Central Asian acts, but they’re brought in by the Central Asian Studies Program at the University.
Jordanian artists are just taking over the DC area these days 🙂 There’s another event starting today and for the next two weeks at the Kennedy Center, I just wrote about it here. Good stuff!
Brian..not sure where in the Midwest you are but we get our fix.
Check out:
http://www.ums.org/secondary/season/artist/artistpage.asp?pageid=318
Also, many stars from the ME also appear in Detroit at the Fox from time to time. Although, these are not widely publicized, I do see posters for them when I head to Dearborn for my monthly shawerma fix.
For some reason in the Midwest we can only get Iranian musicians. This defies demographic expectations given the population centers of Arabs and Iranians in the country.