LEWISTON — The Okbari Middle Eastern Ensemble will perform at Dufresne Plaza on Friday, July 29, as part of Friday Art Walk.
The four musicians will play music including Ottoman Turkish classical compositions, rural Turkish folk and devotional songs, Arabic classical and folk music, and dance music from the Armenian and Turkish immigrant diasporas.
The Okbari Middle Eastern Ensemble performs both as a quartet and as a duo. It has played at venues throughout New England, along the East Coast and in the Midwest. The ensemble was invited to perform at the 2009 Chicago Arabesque Festival and has shared the stage with the Kemani Serkan and Rumeli Meyhane Fasil ensembles in Istanbul, Turkey.
Making up the ensemble are Amos Libby, oud and vocals; Eric LaPerns, percussion; Michael Gallant, violin; and Carl Dimow, flutes.
Libby is co-director of the Bowdoin College Middle Eastern Ensemble, teaches oud as a member of the Applied Music Faculty at Bates College and is an adjunct instructor of oud technique at Bowdoin.
LaPerna is director of the Bowdoin College Middle Eastern Music Ensemble and is a member of the applied music faculty at Bates College, as well as adjunct instructor of hand percussion at Bowdoin.
Gallant was violinist for the late Armenian-American oud and clarinet master Udi Alan Shavarsh Bardezbanian and his Middle Eastern Ensemble.
Dimow is is a member of the applied music faculty at Colby College. Besides the Okbari Middle Eastern Ensemble, he plays with the Casco Bay Tummlers klezmer band, the Kolosko-Dimow-Duo and the World Flute Trio.
The performance will begin at 6 p.m. Dufresne Plaza is adjacent to 84 Lisbon St. If it rains, the musicians will play at Downstage at L/A Arts, 221 Lisbon St.
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- The Okbari Middle Eastern Ensemble will perform at 6 p.m. Friday, July 29,at Dufresne Plaza in Lewiston.
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