Thanks to the Penn Arab Music Ensemble, a group of nearly 120 University of Pennsylvania student musicians and their audiences are exposed to the culture of Arab music.

Penn students earn a half-credit from the Music Department in the School or Arts & Sciences for participation in the ensemble. The choir and instrumental music classes meet once a week in the Lerner Center throughout each semester.

“Our songs tell our stories, and you can find a wide range of themes in these songs including love, pain, suffering, happiness and glories. All these stories are depicted in our songs,” said the ensemble music director, Hanna Khoury, who also teaches at Penn. “The students, particularly those who enroll in the choir, end up getting an exposure to our narrative as Arabs.”​​​​​​​

Khoury is pursuing his Ph.D. at Penn in ethnomusicology, with a focus specifically on nationalism and popular culture in Galilee, where he was raised in a small Israeli village.

The ensemble was created by Khoury in 2009 in partnership with the nonprofit Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture as a community group. About six years ago, they formed a partnership with Penn, supported by the Albert M. Greenfield Intercultural Center.

In the spring semester, the ensemble had 74 Penn students in the choir, 40 in percussion and three instrumentalists, says Max Dugan, Al-Bustan program coordinator. In addition, about a dozen community members pay a nominal fee to participate in the classes and the concert.

“This forum is an opportunity to study the Arab musical tradition, regardless of your instrument,” said Khoury.

The group performed its spring concert for an audience of more than 150 in Houston Hall in April, featuring the music of Melhem Barakat, a Lebanese singer-songwriter and music icon in the Arab world. A video of a concert performance is available here. 

This year’s concert, he said, was particularly powerful, given the focus on Barakat’s music.

“To quote one of the students, It is one of the best shows that happened at Penn on campus,” he said.