Ethnomusicologist, performer, and educator Joseph Alpar explores the intertwined histories
of Jews, Muslims, and Christians in the Ottoman Empire through music at a free performance
at Arthur Zankel Music Center, 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 16.
The central theme of the concert, “Aşk: Music, Love, and Mysticism in the Ottoman World,” is love — aşk in Turkish (pronounced ah-shk) — in all its forms. It will feature poignant songs
of unrequited desire, lyrical wedding ballads about marital loyalty, bawdy tunes delighting
in infidelity, driving Sufi and Jewish mystical songs about divine and earthly beloveds,
and musical vignettes of everyday courtship, relationships, and separation.
The concert will tell an inspiring story of shared musical traditions and intense
cultural collaboration between the peoples of the Ottoman world in several languages
— Turkish, Hebrew, Judeo-Spanish (Ladino), Greek, and Arabic. Alpar will sing and
perform on several Turkish and Greek instruments, joined by a stellar ensemble.
Alpar currently teaches at Bennington College, and his research centers on musical
and religious practices in Turkey and former Ottoman territories, Jewish music, Sufi
music, and music and modernity. Alpar earned his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from The
Graduate Center, City University of New York, having completed a dissertation titled
“Music and Jewish Practice in Contemporary Istanbul: Preserving Heritage, Bending
Tradition.” Alpar is also an accomplished multi-instrumentalist and singer of Middle
Eastern and Western art music.
He is the director of David’s Harp, an acclaimed Philadelphia-based ensemble specializing
in the music of Turkey, Greece, and North Africa, particularly in the music of Sephardic
and Mizrahi Jewish communities. He has taught previously in the music departments
of Swarthmore College, Temple University, and CUNY Hunter College. He was a fellow
in the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, to study and contribute
to the Jewish Life in Modern Islamic Contexts project.
The event is sponsored by Skidmore’s Jacob Perlow Series, Office of Special Programs, and departments of Music, Environmental Studies and
Sciences, Religious Studies, Political Science, and History. Funding is provided by
endowments established by Jacob Perlow, an immigrant to the U.S. in the 1920s who
was committed to furthering Jewish education, and by a bequest from Beatrice Perlman
Troupin.
