Liminal Encounters: Concert Of Rohingya Tarana Songs

Logistics Tickets: Entry is free, but please reserve a ticket in advance. [hidden] open at 7:30 PM. Please arrive on time!Concert from 8:00–9:30 PMReception from 9:30–10:30 PM Accessibility: The venue is on the second floor of 5545 N Clark Street, and there is an ADA-accessible elevator. Parking: there is metered street parking available along Clark Street and surrounding neighborhood streets (please check signage for potential neighborhood parking permits). Valet parking is not available. Artists Hamid Ullah: lead vocals and mandolin The Crossing Borders Music String Quartet: Caroline Jesalva (violin), Sarah Kim (violin), Wilfred Farquharson (viola), and Tom Clowes (cello). Tomal Hossain: backing vocals and harmonium Ronnie Malley: finger cymbals and miscellaneous percussion Arun Sabapathy: tabla Lucia Thomas: violin Artist Bios Hamid Ullah Hamid Ullah (1972–present) is a musician and Rohingya refugee based in Canada. Despite numerous obstacles, he taught himself how to sing and play the mandolin as a young teenager. In 1988, when Hamid was 16 years old, Burmese militants conducted indiscriminate killings of civilians and arson attacks in and around his hometown in present-day Rakhine State, Myanmar—aka. Arakan. To save his life, Hamid fled on foot to neighboring Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. For the next twenty years, Hamid built a family and a remarkable music career in Bangladesh. He sang for numerous political campaigns of notable politicians in Cox’s Bazar, including MP Abdur Rahman Bodi (Teknaf, 1994), MP Muhammed Ali (Neela, 1998), MP Shahjan in (Ukhiya, 2002), and MP Anwar (Shamlapur, 2006), to name a few. Hamid also performed for countless UNHCR events with high-ranking officials in attendance. In 2006, he shared the stage with the late, legendary Bangladeshi musician, Ayub Bacchu. Hamid was imprisoned on several occasions for denouncing corrupt Bangladeshi politicians in his songs. In 2008, Hamid was resettled as a refugee in Ontario, Canada, where he now lives with his wife and children. In 2008, he performed an original Rohingya tarana song in front of the Government of Quebec. In 2009, he launched his YouTube channel, which currently has 7.5 thousand subscribers and close to 700 videos of him singing his original songs. Hamid’s music is also widely circulated on other YouTube and social media channels, making the total number of listeners to his music easily in the millions. Hamid makes it a point to donate all the proceeds from his YouTube channel to those in need in Bangladesh and Burma. In 2023, Hamid performed in Chicago and Milwaukee for the occasion of World Refugee Day. Beyond the impacts of his performing and composing, Hamid has fostered an international roster of devoted and well-acclaimed students over the four decades of his musical career, including Ismail and Abdullah in Canada, Muhammad Hussain and Sayedul Amin in Bangladesh, Usman in Malaysia, and Ehsan in Norway. Despite his many noteworthy accomplishments, Hamid says that he is most proud of is his global recognition throughout the Rohingya diaspora by the moniker, “Rohingya Hamid.” Indeed, it would not be an overstatement to say that Hamid is one of the most popular and influential Rohingya musicians of our times. Tomal Hossain Tomal Hossain is a scholar, musician, and advocate. His dissertation project examines tarana song performance regarding questions of nation, Indigeneity, and Islam among Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh. As a musician, Tomal specializes in solo vocal performances of Hindustani and Bengali music, specifically khayal and the songs of Kazi Nazrul Islam. He also performs as a founding member and co-director of Hamnavai, a qawwali ensemble. Tomal has also collaborated extensively with musicians specializing in other styles and genres, including those of karnatak, jazz, maqam, and Afro-Caribbean musics. He has performed throughout the US and abroad, including in Austria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Morocco, Singapore, Spain, and Uzbekistan. As an advocate, Tomal serves as artistic director of the Rohingya Performing Arts Center in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. He also serves as a board member of Refugee Women for Peace and Justice, a Chicago-based non-profit organization. Ronnie Malley Ronnie Malley is a Palestinian-American musician, producer, educator, and executive director of Intercultural Music Production. He specializes in musical traditions from the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and medieval Spain, performing internationally with ensembles such as Allos Musica, Apollo’s Fire, Folger Consort, Lamajamal, Mucca Pazza, the Newberry Consort, Surabhi Ensemble, and the University of Chicago Middle East Music Ensemble. Malley’s interdisciplinary work spans music, theatre, and media, with credits including The Band’s Visit (Broadway, Tony and Grammy Awards), Mo (Netflix), The Jungle Book (Disney/Goodman Theatre), and Saffron Kingdom (Arfat Sheikh). As a producer and composer, he has created and co-produced American Griot, Little Syria, Ziryab, The Songbird of Andalusia, The Andalusian Trail, and On This Earth. Recipient of the 2023 Chamber Music America Michael Jaffee Visionary Award, Malley holds a BA in Global Music Studies from DePaul University and an MA in Languages from the University of Chicago, where he is pursuing a PhD in Ethnomusicology. Lucia Thomas Lucia Thomas is a violinist in many genres of traditional and classical music. She is a two time Fulbright award recipient and the string conductor of Ravinia's El Sistema Middle School Orchestra. She studies Hindustani classical under the guidance of her guru, Maestro Indradeep Ghosh, and plays with the band Ochin Pakhi, devoted to music of West Bengal, India. Lucia's publications, all available on most streaming platforms, include: Banyan Roots, a podcast series on the musical mystics of West Bengal, India, known as the Baul or Fakir; "Praner Alap- Meeting of Hearts", an album/artbook featuring Rabindranath Tagore's music and poetry, with Lucia's own English translations; "Baba Yaga's Stew" an album of dance music from around the world; and “The World in Chicago,” an album/book pairing of music and oral histories of Chicago immigrant musicians from Argentina, Thailand, Ghana, Jordan, and Serbia. Arun Sabapathy Arun Sabapathy is a rising tabla talent within the new generation of Indian classical musicians. From a very young age, he has been studying tabla under Guru Pandit Shantilal Shah. As an ardent learner of classical music, he enjoys performing as an accompanist and a soloist for organizations such as the Indian Music Society of Houston, Indian Fine Arts Academy of San Diego, and various Indian Arts Organizations within the greater Chicagoland area. While Arun’s training and performing experiences have primarily been in a classical music setting, he has started to branch out into other musical fields, such as Carnatic fusion and jazz. Being an avid percussionist, he finds himself experimenting with other percussive instruments and music production. He continues to seek new opportunities to expand his musical horizon while also helping build bridges between different cultures through music. Arun is an engineering professional based in Chicago and frequently participates in musical events throughout the Chicagoland area. Caroline Jesalva Caroline Jesalva is a violinist and vocalist traversing the worlds of classical music, improvisation and experimental music. Inspired by Dadaism, her music explores experimental theater, poetry, classical repertoire, and free improvisation. As a violinist, Caroline has most recently performed with A Far Cry, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Callithumpian Consort, and recently premiered a new opera by Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding, entitled Iphigenia. She has held fellowships with YellowBarn Young Artists, Bang-on-A Can, Black House Collective; and is a recent graduate of New England Conservatory of Music where she studied violin performance under the tutelage of Nicholas Kitchen (Borromeo String Quartet). She is the founder of Blind Glass ensemble, named the 2023 NEC Wildcard Honors Ensemble, which was created with the intention to build a collaborative space for musicians of all shapes and kinds. A passionate educator, she has taught at New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School, and was on faculty at The People’s Music School in Chicago, IL. Sarah Kim Violinist Sarah Kim has performed extensively as a chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. As a resident artist at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music from 2008 2013, Sarah performed internationally with the Apple Hill String Quartet, directed summer chamber music sessions, and taught master classes in universities such as UCLA, Colby College, Boston Conservatory, University of New Mexico, and the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Through Apple Hill’s innovative Playing for Peace program, Sarah performed and taught chamber music workshops in major conflict areas of the world, including Israel/Palestine, Cyprus, and Ireland. From 2017-2023, Sarah was a Resident Musician with Community MusicWorks, a nationally recognized community-based music performance and education program. In addition to her work at CMW, Sarah taught at the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, and from 2021-2023, Sarah taught violin and chamber music as a Teaching Associate at Brown University. Currently, Sarah teaches violin, viola, and chamber music at Loyola University Chicago and during the summer is on faculty at the Kinhaven Senior Session. Sarah has received degrees from Indiana University, Yale School of Music, and Stony Brook University, where her principal teachers were Josef Gingold, Miriam Fried, Peter Oundjian, Pamela Frank, and Phil Setzer. Wilfred Farquharson Wilfred Farquharson is a violist from outside of Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys a multi-faceted performance career as studio, orchestral, and chamber musician. In addition, he also enjoys teaching violists and nurturing their love for music. Wilfred currently serves as a faculty member of the Merit School of Music. In the summer of 2022, Wilfred performed as a fellow with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra. From 2020-2022, he was a Los Angeles Orchestra Fellow, where he mentored students of the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles and performed with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra while a graduate student at the University of Southern California. While in LA he also performed live and in studio sessions with the Re-Collective Orchestra, and performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as a substitute violist. Wilfred attended the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University as a Premier Young Artist and Hudson and Holland Scholar. During his undergraduate studies at the Jacobs School he studied with Stephen Wyrczynski, Masumi Per Rostad, and was further mentored by Ed Gazouleas, Anne Epperson, and the Pacifica Quartet. Wilfred has also been selected to perform in many masterclasses for world-class artists, such as Pinchas Zukerman, the Dover Quartet, the Ritz Chamber Players, Carol Rodland, Jeffrey Irvine, Kirsten Doctor, and Melia Watres. Tom Clowes Tom Clowes is a Chicago-area cellist and Founder of Crossing Borders Music. Tom was a student of internationally acclaimed cellist Wendy Warner, former Detroit Symphony Orchestra Principal Cellist Italo Babini, and Lawrence University Conservatory of Music Professor Janet Anthony. As a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, he played under conductors Riccardo Muti, Peter Oundjian, and Cliff Colnot. In the summers, he teaches at the Ambassadors Music Institute in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti. Before moving to Chicago, Tom was a member of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. For twelve years, he proudly taught at the outstanding Chicago West Community Music Center of Garfield Park. More Info below.