National Arab Orchestra On the Shoulders of Giants: Arab Women in Music Directed by: Michael Ibrahim February 10, 2018 Detroit Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts Aminti bil-Lah Composer: Farid Ghusn, sung by: Laure Daccache Vocalist: Hela Melki Audio produced by: DAVESCHALLACOUSTIC Video produced by: hawkmedia.us Violins: Layth AlRubaye, Eylem Basaldi, Megan Gould, Laura Harada, Frances Hostetter, Emad Ibrahim, Insia Malik, Fr. Dn. Bassam Nashawati, Roberto Riggio, Katie Van Dusen, Andrea Vercoe, Sachiyo Yoshimoto. Cello: Khaled Khalifa, Double Bass: Jonathan Hammonds. Oud: Victor Ghannam. Qanun: Tony Barhoum. Nay/Director: Michael Ibrahim. Electric Guitar: Edward Gedeon. Synthesizer: Haitham Zbib. Percussion: Ryan Paul Gates, Roger kashou, Gilbert Mansour, Karim Nagi, Tareq Rantisi, Dr. Gursharan Singh Sandhu. Fordson High School Choir: Juana Abdalla, Fatima Alrebaie, Zainab Alrebaie, Maya Berry, Dena Eldirawi, Farrah Hassoun, Sabrina Itawi, Selena Jafer, Amal Khalil, Sarah Qaddoumi, Leila Rustom, Yossr Saihi, Nora Soofi. Aminti Bil Lah: Originally sung by Laura Daccache. Hailing from Lebanon, Laure Daccache (1917-2005) sang in a highly masterful style of maqam-based music. At a young age, she recorded for the Beirut-based record company Baidaphon, with repertoire that included songs by her father, George Daccache. She studied the repertoire performed by Umm Kulthum, learning to sing in part through imitation of the established singer’s voice, although she eventually developed her independent singing style. Daccache was among a wave of singers who came to Cairo in the 1930s in search of performance and financial opportunities. In Egypt, she continued to study the classical repertory of musical forms such as the muwashshah and the dawr, which she went on to perform and record to great acclaim. Making her Egyptian radio debut in 1944, she continued to appear on various radio programs as well. Like the prominent performers Umm Kulthum and Su’ad Muhammad, Daccache was a musician who prized the marriage of high-quality poetry to music as part of her ouevre. Furthermore, Daccache was one of a select group of women who composed music in the commercial domain. Hela Melki (b.October 20th,1981) is a Tunisian born singer. She is known in the Arabic Music Community for many cover songs by famous classic singers such as Ismahan, Warda Al Jazairia , Om Kalthoum , Farid El Atrash , Abdelhalim Hafiz and Mohamad Abdelwahab. She grew up in a family listening to all kinds of Classic Arabic and Western music as well. At a very young age, Hela showed exceptional singing talent and was influenced by her father, a keyboard player and a Singer who was known singing in English and French language. She used to attend most of her father's band rehearsals, in which Western tunes were mostly played at the time.Hela began singing while she was in primary school (1987) and then she joined the high school musical team (1993) and sang throughout the whole scholarship. She was able after her graduation to participate in a lot of Local, National and Regional Music Competitions (1998/2001) , in which she had achieved all the top ranking positions. Hela started following her own path by pursuing the dream of producing Original Songs in collaboration with famous composers and music arrangers. Hela’s self-titled debut song was " Hokm Ezzaman" (2003) and in 2005 she released "Nghir Alik". She has since performed live all over the Arab world as well as many performances throughout Europe. She was decorated the Medal of culture by the Minister of Culture in 2006. Hela was devoted to her musical career by highlighting her Tunisian identity and performing classical and contemporary genres of Arab music. At this point of her young career, the presence of this beautiful and powerful voice attracted several Tunisian composers and musicians until she got introduced in 2007 to one of the most respected names in Music industry in Tunisia, Maestro "Abdelhakim Belgaied" with whom she recorded six new soundtracks from different poets (2009). To find out more about the National Arab Orchestra visit our website at www.NationalArabOrchestra.org or email us at info@nationalaraborchestra.org