As part of its Asian Arts and Culture Program, the UMass Fine Arts Center will present a free lecture-demonstration by Israeli-born oud player Yuval Ron at the Arts Block on Feb. 22 at 7 p.m.
Ron, who will appear the following evening for a concert with his ensemble at the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall on the Amherst campus, will present the Greenfield lecture-demonstration, “My Heart is in the East,” looking at how this ancient sacred Hebrew music from the Middle East connects the Jewish people with their roots as a Mideast tribe and its importance for Jewish identity and peace with the Arab world.
The Yuval Ron Ensemble, which will present “The Seeker of Truth” on Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m. at UMass, also features vocals by Najwa Gibran, woodwinds by Norik Manoukian and the ritual of Dervish Aziz.
Ron began playing oud at 17 after hearing it played by Bedouin tribesmen in the Sinai desert. Before coming from Israel in 1985 to study at Berklee School of Music , he was an aspiring jazz guitarist who discovered his passion for composition during his compulsory military service.
He majored in film scoring, and after graduation moved to Los Angeles where he began scoring animated and live-action shows. It was during this time he experienced a growing interest in three religious traditions of the Middle East: Judaism, early Christianity and the mystical Islamic path of Sufism.
Ron’s growing awareness of the violence between Israelis and Palestinians during the 1990s prompted him to form the Yuval Ron Ensemble in 2000 to promote harmony across borders and national divides.
The ensemble includes Jewish, Christian and Muslim artists who have actively worked to create musical bridges between people of various faiths and ethnic groups worldwide.
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