Music at the Museum presents: Joseph Alpar and Friends

Musician and Bennington College faculty member Joseph Alpar will perform a diverse and exciting program of music exploring the long, intertwined histories of Jews, Muslims, and Christians in the Ottoman Empire from the 14th through 20th centuries. The central theme of the concert is love—aşk in Turkish (pronounced ah-shk)—in all its forms. Poignant songs of unrequited desire, lyrical wedding ballads about marital loyalty, bawdy tunes delighting in infidelity, driving Sufi and Jewish mystical songs about Divine and earthly beloveds, and musical vignettes of everyday courtship, relationships, and separation. The concert will tell an inspiring story of shared musical traditions and intense cultural collaboration between the peoples of the Ottoman world in several languages—Turkish, Hebrew, Judeo-Spanish (Ladino), Greek, and Arabic. Joseph Alpar will sing and perform on several Turkish and Greek instruments and will be joined by a stellar ensemble.

Joseph Alpar is an ethnomusicologist, performer, and educator whose research centers on musical and religious practices in Turkey and former Ottoman territories. He earned his PhD in ethnomusicology from The Graduate Center, City University of New York in May 2020, having completed a dissertation titled, “Music and Jewish Practice in Contemporary Istanbul: Preserving Heritage, Bending Tradition.” In addition to his academic work, Alpar is an accomplished and active professional multi-instrumentalist and singer of Middle Eastern and Western art music. He is the director of David’s Harp, an acclaimed Philadelphia-based ensemble specializing in the music of Turkey, Greece, and North Africa.  He has been a member of the Bennington College music faculty since 2019, teaching courses on music and culture, world music practices, music history, and several global music ensembles.

Music at the Museum is made possible by Alison Nowak and Robert Cane.