My Heart is in the East: Muslim, Christian and Jewish Sacred Music

This concert was held on Thurs., Oct. 14, 1999, at the Baha'i Center of Southern California, in conjunction with the World Festival of Sacred Music.

Za'atar, a seven-piece ensemble from the San Francisco Bay Area, performed Arab-Jewish and Sephardic sacred melodies. Their performance was an inspiration to the audience, and there was spontaneous singing and dancing in the aisles. This ensemble's members represent a variety of countries, cultures and traditions. They performed music of the Jews of Morocco, Yemen, Turkey, Iraq, Bukhara and Israel/Palestine.

After the intermission, Kan Zaman, an Southern California-based Arab orchestra and choral group led by Wael Kakish, performed a Moslem Muwashsha praising Allah and his Prophet, as well as an Inshad (hymn) entitled "Allah ya Allah", and a chant performed in Yathrib (Saudia Arabia) in 622 by the citizens to welcome the Prophet into their city, later renamed Madinat Al Nabi  (City of the Prophet).  Kan Zaman also performed a moving and beautiful Christian chant from the Byzantine Syrian Orthodox Church. Song sheets were available and the audience joined in on Muwashsha and the Yathrib chant.

Kan Zaman welcomes support from the community and has a web site where information is available on all their concert dates, http://www.kanzaman.org.

My Heart Is In The East was co-produced by the Baha'i Center and Ivri-NASAWI.