Don’t Let Me Be Lost to You: Middle-Eastern Recording Performers in the United States, 1893-1950
A 90-minute talk with 12 recordings.
Friday April 14, 8pm
Admission by sliding scale donations
All proceeds from this presentation benefit the Baltimore branch of International Rescue Committee. http://www.rescue.org/

Many thousands of recordings were left behind by Arabic-, Armenian-, Kurdish-, and Turkish-speaking musicians in the U.S. during the first half of the 20th Century. Music researcher Ian Nagoski examines the lives and work of some of the superb performers from Greater Syria and Anatolia, who spoke to their compatriots in America in the early 20th century and enriched American musical culture in the process.

Ian Nagoski is a record producer and music researcher in Baltimore who has presented lectures on early 20th century musics in languages other than English in 20 countries in the past eight years. In the past year, he has presented work at the University of Chicago, New York University, and the Library of Congress. He has written about Near Eastern musicians for The Wire, Armenian Weekly, ReOrient, and the Baltimore City Paper.