DAL’OUNA ENSEMBLE is named after a festive Palestinian music genre and sings and plays the daily life of Palestine. Through its music, the ensemble expresses the hopes of a people who love to live, laugh and sing. The ensemble’s repertoire extends from Egypt to Andalusia, passing through various regions and traditions of the Middle East, and adding medieval and jazz accents to a musical confluence of East and West.  On their musical journey, Ramzi Aburedwan and Dal’Ouna bring us into their world, their music, their poetry and traditions. They combine traditional Arab instruments including the bouzouk, the oud, and oriental percussion with viola and accordion. The repertoire ranges from instrumental to traditional poetic genres that focus on love, freedom, and nature. Dal’Ouna is also a story of encounters, shared experiences, a refuge where borders don’t apply, and a message of hope for its members and audiences.  Touring with Dal’Ouna Ensemble in June/July 2015 are: violist and bouzouk player Ramzi Aburedwan, percussionist Tareq Rantisi from Jerusalem, oud player Ziad Ben Youssef from Tunisia, accordion virtuoso Edwin Buger from Yugoslavia, with special guest vocalist Lena Seikaly.

Lena Seikaly is a fresh voice on the national jazz scene from Washington, D.C. Named “one of Washington’s preeminent jazz singers” and “brightest voices in jazz” (The Washington Post), as well as a “major league young talent in jazz” by Duke Ellington’s biographer, Dr. John Hasse, Lena is already making her mark as both a revivalist of traditional jazz vocals, as well as an innovator in contemporary vocal jazz styles. Originally from Falls Church, Virginia, she began her training at age four with piano, continued with classical voice in her teens, and went on to complete a B.M. in classical vocal performance at the University of Maryland School of Music. While attaining regional and national recognition for her classical vocal abilities – including two prestigious prizes from the National Society of Arts and Letters – it was in college where Lena discovered a strong passion for jazz, and embarked on a fervent education of jazz history, styles, theory and composition before pursuing a jazz career in the Washington D.C. area. In 2009, Lena was a participant at the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., where she studied closely with jazz giants Curtis Fuller, George Cables and Dr. Nathan Davis. She was also selected as a Strathmore artist-in-residence for the 2009-2010 season at Bethesda, Maryland’s renowned Strathmore Music Center. As the leader of her own trio, quartet and quintet, Lena has sold out performances at legendary D.C. institutions such as Blues Alley, the Strathmore Mansion, the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, Twins Jazz and various Smithsonian venues, among others. As a vocalist with other ensembles, she has performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival (The Netherlands), the Jazz Ascona Festival (Switzerland), the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee (CA), and was a participant at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass program directed by Christian McBride.
 
Continue reading at lenaseikaly.com…
 
Lena Seikaly official site

SANDY TOLAN is author of The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, Heart of the Middle East, which has sold more than 250,000 copies in six languages, and his new book, Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land.  He has reported from more than 35 countries, mostly in Latin America and the Middle East, written for more than 40 newspapers and magazines, and produced hundreds of documentaries and features for NPR and Public Radio International. His work has focused on the intersection of land conflicts, racial and ethnic identity, natural resources, and the global economy. He is a co-founder of Homelands Productions, an independent production company focusing on documentary work for public radio. Sandy has garnered more than 25 national and international journalism awards.  He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard and an I.F. Stone Fellow at the Graduate School of Journalism at UC-Berkeley, where he taught from 2000-2007.  Currently he is Associate Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California.