Calligraphy is the most prominent art in Islamic culture. Having its roots in the Qur’an, the practice of calligraphy is a multidimensional endeavor. The practice of calligraphy requires patience and discipline, develops understanding of space and design, and, as the calligrapher develops, engages the intellect in a contemplative way. Mastery of the craft comes after years of effort, but the rewards that come from perseverance along the path enrich the soul.

Elinor Aishah Holland is one of four North American calligraphers to receive an icazet in Thuluth and Nashk scripts within the rigorous Ottoman School. She is the only calligrapher among her contemporaries to practice with equal discipline in both the Arabic and Latin scripts. Holland presents and exhibits extensively across the US and Canada. Clients include the Smithsonian Institute, US Department of State, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Rubin Museum. She has exhibited at King Fahd Qur’an Conference, Sharjah and Kuwait Biennials, New York Islamic Arts Kadim Sanatin.

Marin and Kurfirst’s music has grown out of a decade-plus friendship and collaboration rooted in a shared interest in music as a spiritual vehicle. Their exploration reached new heights in 2016 as they were invited to perform in Calcutta and Goa, India with the American Sufi Project an ensemble which demonstrates the potential of interfaith and cross cultural relationships through reinterpreting traditional sufi music in a modern context

Join us for an evening of exploratory music originating from Central Asia, Turkey, Iran and the Middle East, as interpreted in New York City. The first set will showcase explorations of this music on traditional acoustic instruments . The second set will utilize these traditional melodies of the Islamic world as fertile ground for group improvisations, allowing for a unique blend of Eastern modes and Jazz sensibilities. Gabriel’s use of the fretless electric guitar will serve as the nexus where East meets West, a truly one of a kind instrument where the possibilities for cultural syncretism are endless.

They will be joined by many special guests throughout the evening.

Dan Kurfirst is an NYC based percussionist, composer and improviser. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, his music is a product of his good fortune to have been brought up amongst people of all different cultures and master practitioners of all styles of music.

He has performed extensively in the New York City world music and improvised music scenes for years and has performed with various groups throughout Europe, India and the Middle East. Some of his most frequent collaborators include Gabriel Marin, Abraham Mennen, Matt Darriau, Tomchess, Brian Prunka, Kane Mathis, Daro Behroozi, Brandon Terzic and Fima Chupakhin.

Dan currently serves as creative director of the American Sufi Project, an ensemble which demonstrates the potential of interfaith and cross cultural relationships through reinterpreting traditional sufi music in a modern context. In 2016 he co founded Ensemble Fanaa, a trio that explores the past and future of global musical exchange.

He recently worked as Musical Director with the Children’s Museum of Manhattan to develop a touchscreen app for Children to explore music of the Islamic world.

Multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Marin “boasts insane chops, impeccable time, mastery of diverse traditional scales, rare fretless guitar fluency, and a gift for manipulating effects-” Premier Guitar Magazine. Called “the guiding light for his generation of six-stringers”-Buffalo Times, And “A fretless guitar virtuoso whose microtonal adventures rival those of many eastern musicians, and a talent for rhythm and nuttines- Bass Musician Magazine

Gabriel has studied and performed music from North and South India, Iran, The Balkans, Turkey and Central Asia as well as western classical music and avant-garde jazz. As one of the few players to explore the fretless guitar, he has found a truly unique and expressive voice. He is a founding member of internationally renowned fusion band Consider the Source. In addition to Guitar, Gabriel is versed in Dutar, Dombra, Tanbour, Balti Saz, and Kamancha.

Sharing an evening to emerge, in musical frequencies with Alan Kushan’s self made instrument; His philosophy and understanding of an inner energy that we call soul, and her reflection on human’s body; To fathom heart Rhythm, soul’s velocity and the geometry of our emotional system; Traveling through a musical soundscape and their hidden property in our daily life.

A Leading exponent of the New Santur style

Alan Kushan has passed through multifarious phases of musical composition and performance on his supremely delicate yet highly sophisticated musical instrument — his self-made hammered dulcimer or santur. His compositions and arrangements range from traditional Eastern music to innovations with Western classical and Eastern mystical music, to jazz and world music, thereby creating newer, fresher, elevated musical forms.

Alan Kushan relentlessly expands the horizons of his art form. The speed and precision of his dazzling techniques on his self-made santur are simply breathtaking.

He studied music composition in Zurich, Koln and Berlin as well as Canada and the U.S. He studied with Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Ustad Vilayat Khan, among other master musicians. As a child, he studied under three of the greatest Persian santur masters, H. Malek, F. Payvar, and R. Varzandeh.

Over time, not satisfied with the limited range and capacity of his chosen musical instrument, Alan decided to apply his skills as a master instrument-maker to broaden the range of his instrument by adding elements from the modern piano, the harp and the guitar. The result is a unique and powerful instrument, which embodies the musical textures of the ancient and the new.

He cultivates exploration of unusual “universal frequencies”, claiming that this is and has been a prominent source of his creative energy. During the 80s he cultivated expressions of freedom and immediacy against a backdrop of constant “galactic buzz”, while deliberately suspending control of reason and will.

He applies this spontaneous perspective not only in his artistic and poetic creativity but also in his everyday life. Alan Kushan’s performance method reveals an academically meticulous technique that is, paradoxically, in stark contrast to the “dream space” he generally endeavours to depict, and its markedly other-worldly, mystical dimensions.

Alan Kushan has come to the realization that Time itself is captured within Sound, so that it is Sound that is boundless and limitless, and Time itself is a Prisoner within its paradoxical confines. “The Dimension of Sound is akin to the vast universe that mercilessly compels me to progress beyond its peripheral territories. I wish to experience these states of consciousness thoroughly and primordially, so that I may evolve both dynamically and philosophically as an Artist.”

“It is the Quintessence of Sound that I seek. This is an eternal quest for any authentic musician. Alas, what is the source of this quintessence? In order to achieve it, I must be released from my mortal frame for a deeper, more spiritually penetrating journey, all the way back to this source, and then forwards again towards the ultimate consummation of that self-same journey. Could this then be the Silence of God? A mirror of the Absolute Divine?”

Music is the art of arts and the science of all sciences; and it contains the fountain of all knowledge within itself. 
–Hazrat Inayat Khan

Barbara Eramo: Lead Vocal, Ukulele
Pejman Tadayon: Oud, Kamanche, Vocal
Stefano Saletti: Buzuki, Oud, Vocal
Featuring: Giovanni Lo Cascio: Percussions

Pejman Tadayon’s ensemble merges the three disciplines that best express the essence of Sufism: music, dance and poetry. Persian Sufi music consists of devotional compositions inspired by the verses of mystic poets such as Rumi, Hafiz, and Sa’adi, among others. Music is also the basis of the Sema, the ceremony of the whirling dervishes. The beauty and sacredness of Sufi music and dance represent the yearning for union with the divine.

Pejman Tadayon is a musician, composer and painter. He is the director of the Pejman Tadayon Ensemble. He has released several music albums, including Universal Sufi Music. Pejman plays the oud, kamancheh, ney, daff, and setar. He is also an innovative painter and the creator of pittura sonora, paintings that are musical instruments with strings that can be played. Born in Esfahan, Iran, Pejman lives and creates in Rome, Italy.

Barbara Eramo is a classically trained opera singer and musician whose evocative melodies seek the expression of pure emotion. Barbara gave voice and sound to the inspiring mages of Emily Dickinson’s poems in her solo album “Emily.”

Stefano Saletti is a composer and musician of traditional Mediterranean music. He is a vocalist, a buzuki and an oud player. Together with Barbara Eramo, Stefano Saletti worked on Hector Zazou’s contemporary-Oriental version of I Feel Love song, featured on the Buddha Bar XIII compilation.

Many say that life entered the human body by the help of music, but the truth is that life itself is music.
–Hafiz

This book chronicles the life of Muzaffer Efendi and provides an account of the rich legacy of Sufi teachings which he offered as a gift to the West. Like Bodhidharma’s transmission of Zen Buddhism to China in the fourth century, Muzaffer Efendi is honored as an important modern pioneer in the transmission of authentic Islamic mysticism to the United States. The teachings of Sufism are love-centered and pacifist, rather than penal-centered and retributive, a much needed balance to the restrictive and often violent interpretation of Islam so often featured in the world media today.