Yuval Ron educates with harmony

Author: Alexxa Gotthardt

On Oct. 18, the Yuval Ron Ensemble, led by world-music composer and oud-extraordinaire Yuval Ron, saturated Mead Chapel with a harmonious mélange of Middle-Eastern melodies. The group, with a mixture of music and musicians from many different and often dissonant Middle-Eastern religions, cultures and traditions, stopped at Middlebury as part of its world tour to communicate the importance of peace and unity in today's war-ridden cultural and political climate.

In 2001, the second Intifada violently shook the West Bank. In response to the brutality, Israeli-born Ron was asked to organize a concert as a public prayer. At the time, Ron's career concentrated solely on composing. "I didn't do much performing," said Ron. "It's a risk to suddenly go on stage. "

Ron, however, was eager to convey the value of harmony in today's world and so set his reservations aside to entreat the talents of accomplished musicians from a variety of Middle-Eastern heritages to join in the performance of peace. The result was the formation of the Yuval Ron Ensemble and the birth of a traveling message of tolerance and unity.

Since its birth in 2001, the Yuval Ron Ensemble, comprised of Ron on the oud, Virignie Alumyan on the kanoun, Carolyne Aycaguer-Ron on the harmonium and keyboards, Norik Manoukian playing woodwinds, percussionists Jamie Papish and David Martinelli and vocalist Najwa Gibran, has transcended the bounds of Los Angeles to take its music and message from Mississippi to Korea to many a venue in-between.

The group aims not only to entertain with beautiful music but also to educate their audience. "It's social and political work, and first of all, educational work," said Ron. "Its education and then its entertainment. It's our attempt to try to make the world better in the future."

The primary message that the group conveys is that of tolerance. "Tolerance is key for a rich culture and prosperity," said Ron. "Prosperity requires bringing all different people with all different talents together. Intolerance just cuts a lot of people out."

The Yuval Ron Ensemble also recognizes and reveals the dangers of extreme nationalism. "It is a problem when countries say 'this is our dance, this is our music, no one else's,'" said Ron. "The people who divide, who are too strongly nationalistic - I'm trying to counterbalance that cultural conflict through my music."

At Yuval Ron's Middlebury performance, the sacred musical traditions of Judaism, Islam and the Christian Armenian Church resounded harmoniously throughout Mead Chapel, highlighting the message of cultural and religious tolerance. "Most simply, we play a mixture of Jewish, Christian and Islamic music. Those are the three religions and traditions we try to bring under one tree. They are all from one tree," said Ron, recalling the message of unity as well as the name of the ensemble's newest album and the title of the concert, "Under the Olive Tree: Sacred Music of the Middle East."

Yuval Ron Ensemble's 11-song repertoire included "Tudra," a Jewish Moroccan song describing a coming of age ceremony, "Aman Aman," an Islamic call intended to open the gates of heaven for worship and "Fogel Nakhal," a song with a strong Andalusian influence recalling a time when the Spanish Jews, Arabs and Christians lived together in Andalusia. In between songs, Ron recounted playful yet profound tales of the songs' origins and their contemporary impact - undeniable allusions to the necessity of tolerance.

While the spoken aspect of the concert was important, it was the music that best conveyed Yuval Ron Ensemble's message. "Through performing, there's this whole live energy that has been added to my dream," said Ron. "In the ideal world we want everyone to get along, to come together. Music can bring us all together."

Throughout the concert, the coalescent power of music was obvious by simply glancing onstage to see the diversity of musicians. Their cultural and ethnic variegation matched their variegated musical styles, as they come from Armenia, Palestine, Lebanon, Jerusalem and other Middle-Eastern countries and practice Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Though the musicians represent a wide range of nations, cultures and religions that often conflict in our contemporary world, they all smiled to each other as they played, clearly enjoying the music and recognizing the harmony it creates.

These feelings of fraternity, friendship and peace, radiated from the stage, imbuing the audience with the self-same sentiments. "The music that we play is sacred music from many different religions and traditions that has the power and effect of melting the heart," said Ron. "It makes people a little softer, a little more ready to accept the message."

The concert culminated with two lively traditional sacred dance reels during which Ron encouraged the audience to "let [themselves] go and dance." It seemed the incarnation of Yuval Ron Ensemble's dream - all different people of diverse religions and backgrounds shedding thoughts of prejudice and sharing a moving musical experience.

Yuval Ron Ensemble's message and music were received with great enthusiasm by the Middlebury community. Ghazi Abuhakema, visiting assistant professor of International Studies & Arabic and organizer of Yuval Ron Ensemble's Middlebury debut, was very pleased with the performance and the impact it had on the Middlebury audience. "Everyone enjoyed it, it was a great success for us," said Abuhakema. "[Yuval Ron Ensemble] presented a very hopeful picture of what the future could be if we accept and tolerate each other, and Middlebury seemed to excitedly accept the ideas."