The Faculty of Music and Musicology (FMM) at Antonine University (UA) organized a concert on November 24, 2022, at 8:00 PM, in Our Lady of the Seeds Monastery on the Hadat–Baabda Campus, centered around the creative art of taqsīm, the main form of instrumental improvisation in the maqāmāt modes of the Mašriq’s art music tradition.

This event, where Nidaa Abou Mrad (Dean of the FMM), violin, and Ghassan Sahhab (Lecturer at the FMM), qānūn, performed seven short waṣalāt made of the seven main maqāmāt modes ((1) Ṣabā, (2) Jahārkāh, (3) Bayyātī, (4) Ḥijāz, (5) Rāst, (6) ‘Uššāq, and (7) Sīkāh), combining improvisation of measured and non-measured taqāsīm as well as (responsorial and concerting) taḥmīlāt, and integrating instrumental music pieces from the Arab Renaissance (Nahda) played at various times, attracted the UA community and external public.

The program transported the audience on a musical journey to the Levantine art music tradition, and the virtuosic performance was unequivocally imbued with a sense of serenity, which irresistibly evoked feelings of warmth among the listeners who experienced self-transcendent emotions and moments of enthusiasm and gratefulness. Lastly, the musicians dedicated this concert to the memory of Mr. Youssef Naimy.