In a world troubled by religious strife and division, the period between the eighth and fifteenth centuries in the Iberian Peninsula offers a hopeful historical reminder: Muslims, Christians, and Jews once lived together in Spain, creating a centuries-long flowering of commerce, culture, art, and architecture. They forged a Golden Age for each faith and distanced Spain from a Europe mired in the Dark Ages.

Provenance is inspired by the glory of this multireligious, multicultural, civilization that forever changed the West. It outlines the origins of an ideal in which cultural differences are not simply tolerated but explicitly sought for the energy they release with each encounter.

Maya Beiser grew up in Israel on a progressive Kibbutz living in harmony with the neighboring Muslim and Christian Arab villages. The local Middle Eastern music, played at her neighbors' celebrations and holidays or emanating from the minarets at dawn as the Muezzin called the faithful for morning prayers, was the ever present experience of childhood.

For Provenance Maya Beiser has commissioned young composers from Israel, Palestine, Algeria, Morocco, Iran and the United States to create music inspired by the Golden Age in Medieval Spain. Also included are arrangements of masterpieces by Hamza el Din, Djivan Gasparyan and the 9th century Galician troubadour Martin Codax. Maya Beiser is not engaged in an archeological dig in which the music of the 8th century is stood again on its feet. Instead she seeks to reproduce an environment in which varied and seemingly culturally dissimilar traditions can once again occupy the same shared space.

Joining her on stage will be the Lebanese-American master Oud player Bassam Saba, and hand drummer virtuoso Jamey Haddad. The different pieces will be united by Iranian-American Sound designer and computer specialist Shahrokh Yadegari, who will create a cohesive and shared sonic space, in real time, within which the musicians will perform.

Provenance is 75 non-stop minutes of continuous thread where live music and original text in Ladino, Arabic, Hebrew and Latin are woven together into an all-encompassing musical tapestry.

Maya Beiser, cello
Bassam Saba, oud
Jamey Haddad, percussion
Shahrokh Yadegari, live electronics

Sound Installation and design - Sharokh Yagedari
Sound Design - Dave Cook
Lighting Design - Stephen Arnold
Artistic Adviser - Robert Woodruff

Conceived and produced by Maya Beiser

Program:

THE ECHO OF DECAY - RAZ MESINAI
for solo cello and live electronics

SAMAI NAHAWAND - by SIMON SHAHEEN
for cello, oud and percussion

MAR DE LECHETAMAR MUSKAL
for cello, oud and percussion

ABSENCE
Improvisation for percussion and live electronics

LIKE SMOKE - by ANONYMOUS
for cello and vocals ARR. E V A N Z I P O R Y N

ESCALAY - by HAMZA EL DIN
for cello, oud, ney and percussion
(Composed by Hamza El Din, arranged by JOAN JEANRENAUD)
Arranged for "Provenance" by MAYA BEISER

ONLY BREATH - by DOUGLAS J. CUOMO
for cello and live electronics

LIKE THIS Improvisation
for spoken text and live electronics

I WAS THERE - by KAYHAN KALHOR
for cello, oud and percussion

MEMORIES by DJIVAN GASPARIAN
for solo cello