“My father is a classical violinist, and my mother paints,” says Moroccan-born Hicham Chami. “They live for music. And they wanted their children to have a broad, cultivated upbringing.” But violin or piano didn’t seem right for their son, who had a birth defect. “My mother had an accident when she was pregnant with me,” Chami says, “which left the fingers on my left hand stunted in their growth.” Instead his parents thought he might like playing the qanun.
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A plucked-string instrument that rests in the performer’s lap, the qanun has a bright tone and a high pitch, traits that make it ideal for generating not only melodic lines but also embellishments. Combine it with an oud, a violin, a flute, and percussion and you’ve got a takht, the classic Arabic chamber ensemble. The qanun reached Morocco in the early 20th century, says Chami, and became popular in the 1940s, during a period of nationalist fervor that culminated in the country’s independence from France in 1956.
When Chami came to Chicago three years ago to attend DePaul’s MBA program, he lost no time making connections in his art. In 2000 he went to New York for an Arabic music retreat run by the Palestinian oud and violin virtuoso Simon Shaheen, whom Chami calls the “Sammy Sosa of Oriental music.” One day while browsing in the DePaul Music Mart he met clarinetist Eve Monzingo, who also plays qanun. And in 2001, at the second annual Genesis Project–a showcase of Middle Eastern music, dance, and poetry organized by physician Wendy Sternberg–Chami heard fiddler Stuart Rosenberg play with his ensemble, Titiko. He introduced himself after the show and asked, “You’re six Jewish guys–do you want to work with a Moroccan?”
