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L.A.'s Middle East Cultural Arts Center Fêtes 12th Year!

Subtitle: 
fiscal year ending, donations requested by June 30th

Can you believe it?!

We are just starting our 12th year serving greater Los Angeles. Don Heckman wrote the first LA Times article about us, positively reviewing our first public program, in a Calendar review published June 25, 2001. (We received another thumbs-up review in December 2001 by theatre critic Don Shirley and many more LA Times articles since.) 

Concert with Charming Hostess at the Levantine café!

Event Details
Date/Time: 
Jun 6 2013 8:00pm - 9:30pm
Price: 
$12 advance/$10 members; $15 at the door
Click here to buy tickets
Where: 
Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035
Between La Cienega & Fairfax just east of The Mint
street parking
Subtitle: 
cross-cultural world fusion band makes L.A. debut

The Levantine Cultural Center has canceled the Charming Hostess concert this evening and will reschedule for a future date. We apologize for this inconvenience. Please watch our website for future dates.

Charming Hostess is a music ensemble exploring the intersection of text, space, and diaspora consciousness. Recent immersive installation work includes The Bowls Project, on Babylonian amulets (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts); HEAVENSHOW, on letters and breath (Contemporary Jewish Museum); and Teraphim, on the joys of idolatry (Meridian Gallery). Their music has been curated into the Prague Bienalle and the Museum of Peace in Uzbekistan. Visit the web site.

Café Arabesque 2 features North African, Arab Music

Event Details
Date/Time: 
May 24 2013 8:00pm - 11:00pm
Price: 
$18 advance/$15 members/students/seniors or with postcard; $20 at the door; doors open 7:30 pm
RSVPs strongly advised, 323.413.2001
Click here to buy tickets
Where: 
Levantine Cultural Center's Café Arabesque
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035-2657
Between La Cienega & Fairfax
street parking
Subtitle: 
Al-Fareed and his cohorts perform authentic North African/Arab music, dancers welcome!

"'Arabesque' was out of this world amazing. We enjoyed it very much and can't wait for the encore." —Laila El-Hajoui 

"Great event at the Levantine Cultural Center Saturday night...the music took my soul on a beautiful journey." —Nancy Tedder 

The Levantine Cultural Center presents an encore performance of "Arabesque" with Al-Fareed of Radio Al-Fareed, AKA Alfred Madain and a group of musicians, the band calling itself Bedouin X. The band members are David Markowitz, Timothy Maloof and David Martinielli. Special guest artist visiting from Tunisia, Jamel Eddine Boukraa.

"A Grand Souk Festival" Features Bazaar, Work of Mahfouz and Gibran

Event Details
Date/Time: 
May 19 2013 11:30am - 5:00pm
Price: 
Free to the public, donations welcome.
Where: 
El Rancho Cordillera del Norte
9015 Wilbur Avenue
Northridge CA 91324
at southwest corner of Wilbur and Nordhoff
free lot and street parking
Subtitle: 
activities for kids and adults, readings from Egyptian Author Naguib Mahfouz & Khalil Gibran

"A Grand Souk Festival" will feature activities for adults and children on Sunday, May 19th at El Rancho Cordillera del Norte in Northridge from 11:30 am until 5:00 pm. This open air bazaar of arts and culture is a culminating celebration of the Big Read Program through the National Endowment for the Arts and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. This Valley celebration is sponsored by The Museum of the San Fernando Valley, a participant in this year's Big Read Program, along with the Levantine Cultural Center.

COMEDIENNE-ACTIVIST ROSEANNE BARR PRESENTS ISRAELI JAZZ MASTER GILAD ATZMON IN CONCERT WITH PALESTINIAN ZANE MUSA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Kameron Myles 310.657.5511


MAY 17 LIVE AT THE MINT

[Los Angeles-MAY 1, 2013] On Friday, May 17, progressive comedienne/actor and activist Roseanne Barr presents "Mideast Masters of Jazz," a progressive be-bop quintet starring sax maniacs Gilad Atzmon and Zane Musa, performing together LIVE for the first time. The event will be hosted at The Mint in Los Angeles, accompanied by some of the best be-bop musicians in Los Angeles. To be sure, jazz as well as rock, heavy metal, hip hop and blues are all-American music originals, but they are genres that are constantly being challenged and reinvented by swingers in the Middle East-by composers, singer-songwriters and musicians who are both natively Middle Eastern but strongly western in their tastes and travels.

"Gilad and All That Jazz" Documentary Screening

Event Details
Date/Time: 
May 17 2013 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Price: 
$5 general admission
Where: 
Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035
Between La Cienega & Fairfax
street parking
Subtitle: 
a film about one of Israel's most controversial exiles
Join us for a film that follows a flourishing year in the life of one of modern music's greatest saxophonists and one of Europe's most controversial public speakers. Gilad and all that Jazz is a portrait of one of the modern era's best saxophonists; a man who has stolen hearts with the sounds of his sax and angered many with his political activities. The films screens 7 pm, Fri, May 17, prior to a rare concert, 9 pm next door at The Mint, with Gilad Atzmon and Zane Musa, Mideast Masters of Jazz.

The Abbas Premjee Project: Pakistani Jazz Closes "The Art of Music"

Event Details
Date/Time: 
Mar 15 2013 8:00pm - 10:30pm
Price: 
$12 advance, $15 at the door
$10 member/students
Click here to buy tickets
Where: 
Levantine Cultural Center

Levantine presents the Abbas Premjee Project, a concert of progressive Pakistani jazz in conjunction with the Inside/Outside Gallery exhibition "The Art of Music" by Adnan Hussain. The exhibition of 19 paintings is inspired by travels through Central and South Asia, featuring watercolor, gouache and ink pieces of music from Kyrgyzstan, Uyghurs from China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia. Enjoy art and live performance in a unique atmosphere.

Farzad Golpayegani, Iran's Rock Fusion Phenom, Live at the Mint

Event Details
Date/Time: 
Mar 1 2013 8:00pm - 9:30pm
Price: 
Tickets $12 advance/$15 at the door
Click here to buy tickets
Where: 
Levantine at the Mint
6010 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90035
info 323.954.9400 or 323.413.2001
Between La Cienega & Fairfax
street parking
Subtitle: 
Iranian Progressive Rock-Metal & Fusion Concert!
Farzad Golpayegani is one of Iran’s hottest fusion guitarists and composers. He is also a renowned painter and graphic designer who has lived in Iran, Turkey and the U.S. The band is Farzad Golpayegani on electric and acoustic guitar & violin; Ali Sanaei on bass guitar, fretless acoustic bass & acoustic guitar; and Rameel Nissan on drums, percussions and acoustic guitar. This is a one-night only concert before Farzad and his band play live at the 2013 South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin TX. Listen to Farzad G. audio.

The concert at the Mint will feature eastern tunings on electric and acoustic guitars and bass, violin, and a mix of Persian and classical music with metal. The vibe is progressive feel-good rock. This is one in a new monthly series of Middle East rock/jazz/fusion concerts presented by the Levantine Cultural Center and the Mint—the Middle East Rocks.
 
An art exhibit of Farzad Golpayegani's work and after party take place next door at the Levantine Cultural Center, 9:30-11:30 pm, 5998 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90035. 
 

Galeet Dardashti's "Monajat" Offers Soulful Middle East Soundscape

Subtitle: 
UCLA show proved to be a unique fusion of Persian, Jewish, Arab and jazz traditions

By Jordan Elgrably

Recently, I had the rare pleasure of experiencing Monajat—a concert by the American Iranian Jewish singer, composer and cultural anthropologist Galeet Dardashti. Monajat took place on the campus of UCLA, in the Fowler Museum's Lenoir Auditorium. It was an unexpected fusion of Persian classical singing, piyutim (Hebrew spiritual chanting in a poetic mode), Arab and Persian instrumentation, and jazz-like jamming. The concert was bathed in video projections (prepared by Dmitry Kmelnitsky and Lustre) behind the musicians and on two sides of the audience. The immersion in Iranian and Jewish culture—and Arab and American world music culture—was total.

Turkey Rocks, from East to West with Kutsal & Twenty7

Event Details
Date/Time: 
Feb 23 2013 8:00pm - 9:30pm
Price: 
$15 at the door
Where: 
The Mint
6010 Pico Blvd
Los Angeles CA 90035
next door to the Levantine gallery
Subtitle: 
first in a new series of rock/world/fusion concerts with bands from the Middle East, at The Mint

Rock, metal, heavy metal, hip hop, jazz and blues are all-American music originals, but they are genres that are constantly being challenged and reinvented by swingers in the Middle East—by singer-songwriters and musicians who are both natively Middle Eastern but strongly western in their tastes and travels. Turkey spans the European and Asian continents and is a bridge culture between east and west. Kutsal is an Istanbul, Turkey born-and-educated rocker with four recordings to her credit, and Band Twenty7 is a top indie band; both Kutsal and Twenty7 rock the house singing in both English and Turkish. This is one in a new series, "The Middle East Rocks," and is a collaboration between the Levantine Cultural Center and The Mint—LevantineMint. Tickets are $12 or $15 at the door, available now online.