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A DC-BASED COMPANY, and at our core:
DEVELOPING AND PRODUCING ORIGINAL WORKS OF MUSIC=THEATRE,
FOSTERING ARTISTS IN THEIR DEVELOPMENT,
AND ENGAGING WITH THE COMMUNITY IN PARTNERSHIP
Changing the Conversation Through the Arts
Afghan Women’s Project
Workshop in Afghan Vocal Techniques
As part of the multi-year process of developing its cross-cultural project about the history and artistic achievements of Afghan women, Alliance is offering a series of workshops bringing Afghan and local artists together, featuring dance, music and poetry from Afghanistan
On Tuesday, April 25 2023 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
at George Mason University,
New Music-Theatre hosted Afghan singer, musician and educator Humayun Khan to lead a free workshop in Afghan vocal techniques. In addition to teaching about the modes and complex scales of Afghanistan’s rich musical heritage, he lead participants in some classical folk songs and even some of the new compositions from the original music-theatre work, Women of Troy: Voices from Afghanistan.
We invite Afghan women living in the DMV, who want to reconnect with their cultural roots to join us for future workshops in the fall of 2023 as we support keeping the music alive in this free workshop. It will be presented in both English and Dari.
To participate in future workshops, please contact us at info@newmusictheatre.org
At the end of the workshop, we opened up the work to a small audience of Afghan and other friends and join Humayun in a demo of what we have learned. Celebrate with us the resiliency and creative artistry of Afghan women as our company members stretch our individual professional capacities and understandings.
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In addition to these workshops, Alliance wants to maintain its support of women’s voices in a variety of artistic fields in our project - Afghan Women's Portraits: In Our Own Voices.
We have invited Afghan filmmaker Airoshkh, whose short documentary “Look Who’s Driving Now” won international acclaim, to collaborate on a series of initial video portraits to help further the story of the ongoing resiliency of Afghan women as cultural keepers and art-makers. Through this series, Alliance will produce 6-8 short video portraits, initially featuring women living in Afghanistan’s diaspora. These portraits will serve as glimpses into the music, poetry, calligraphy, dance, visual arts, and costume/fashion design -- a rich culture which is already endangered and at risk of being further destroyed.
The aim of Afghan Women's Portraits is to give voice to ordinary Afghan women and show their lives as extraordinary – artists, educators, and stewards of Afghanistan’s rich cultural past. Former Ambassador Roya Rahmani commented: “There is no more important time to feature the women of Afghanistan, highlighting the positivity of their contributions and making essential women’s role in lighting the way.”
In the future we plan to feature and help sustain this cultural heritage in our culminating production of
Women of Troy: Voices from Afghanistan.