Asiyah Women’s Center presents Megumi & Friends at Barzakh Cafe 5:30-7:15pm, Arabic music jam, 7:30-

Barzakh Cafe
147 Utica Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11213

Megumi & Friends, led by Megumi Saruhashi, will perform her compositions inspired by three places she calls home: Japan, New York and Egypt. This year she focuses on her new compositions of grief, longing and her love affair to her home country, Japan, in order to hold space together for the experiences and emotions that are too vast to carry alone in the midst of global traumas.

Featuring:

Megumi Saruhashi, compositions and violin

Brian Prunka, oud Zach Lapidus, piano

Moto Fukushima, bass

Jeremy Smith, percussion

Megumi Saruhashi is a violinist and composer, who grew up around rice paddy fields in seaport city near Tokyo, Japan. Having performed around the globe from Carnegie Hall to Palestinian and Syrian refugee camps, Megumi knows no boundary when it comes to performing music. Megumi has embraced her credo “The earth is my home, the sky is my blanket. Wherever I go, I am home”, with three bases she calls home, namely, Japan, New York and Egypt.

Through steeping in these three cultures, she found her voice in musical compositions that express her admiration for these distinctively unique cultures, and discovered the magic and healing in uncovering the unity that hides in diversity. Her compositions reconcile differences across the cultural psyches, and enrich each one through the gifts of the other. Years in New York city has gifted her a wide range of musical influences; Jazz, contemporary Gospel, Argentinian Tango, Western classical, Japanese folk, free jazz and most importantly, Arabic music from the Golden Age.

Her leader group Megumi & Friends has received numerous awards and a commission from American Composer’s Forum, and toured throughout Japan and Egypt. She has received extensive training for Arabic music with the masters in Egypt, especially from a legendary violinist and composer, Abdo Daghar in Cairo until his passing who taught her the importance of innocent play.

Megumi has also been active as a soloist with ensembles and orchestras in Cairo, including Cairo Opera House. One of her compositions "Refugees" was composed for Syrian refugees in Aramoun, Lebanon where she held a singing workshop called " Song without words." with a local NGO, URDA. Her desire and exploration is around sparking self-expression in people with traumatic experiences through the joy and deep range and fluidity of feeling that music can bring. She wishes to bring the experience of simultaneous lightness and depth, playfulness and deep healing. Megumi continually crosses borders -- literally and musically -- in her dedication to finding a unifying healing force through embracing diversity.

Brooklyn Arts Fund is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) (@nyculture), administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (@bkartscouncil)

MEGUMI, violin

MEGUMI, violin

MEGUMI, violin