Events List

Event: "A Mouthful of Happiness" (luqmit is sa adeh) - An Evening of Storytelling, Music and Dance with Peter Vallance (Storytelling and Dance), Mohamed Nafee Mohammed (Oud) and Rob MacKillop (Lute, Baroque Guitar and Theorbo).
Venue: Meeting Room, Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh, EH1 2JL.
Time: Doors open: 6.30pm. Event: 7pm-9.30pm.
Event Description: The title for our evening comes from the Arabic name for the dinner served to a newly wedded couple. Tonight we offer you a feast of music, story and song as befits a great wedding celebration. The courses will include love, passion, supernatural beings and humour drawn from the Arab and Jewish diasporas. We hope our blending and interweaving of many strands from as far away as Spain and North Africa will satisfy your taste buds and leave your heart joyous and uplifted.

1. 7pm-7.30pm: Peter Vallance (Storytelling) accompanied by Rob MacKillop (Spanish baroque guitar).

2. 7.30pm-8pm: Rob MacKillop (Music from 17th-century Scotland for lute and guitar).

8pm-8.20pm: Interval.

3. 8.20pm-8.45pm: Peter Vallance (Storytelling) accompanied by Mohamed Nafee Mohammed (Oud).

4. 8.45pm-9.10pm: Mohamed Nafee Mohammed (Oud) (Baghdad's Sorrows).

5. 9.15pm-9.30pm: Peter Vallance (Group Dance Facilitation) accompanied by Mohamed Nafee Mohammed (Oud).

Peter Vallance: Peter Vallance lives at the Findhorn Foundation where he tells stories, teaches dance and is Artistic Director of the Universal Hall. He leads pilgrimages to sacred sites and has made his own personal pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Konya.

Mohamed Nafee Mohammed: Mohamed Nafee Mohammed is an Iraqi singer and musician who started singing and playing oud at an early age in parties, and at Iraqi and international festivals. He recorded many songs for Iraqi TV but stopped singing when he was involved as an army officer in the war between Iraq and Iran. He restarted his music activities when he arrived in the UK in 1998, and he established the Babylon Arabic Band and released his first CD in 2005. He organizes regular Arabian Night parties nationwide.

Rob MacKillop: Rob has recorded many CDs of historical music. In 2001 he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship for his research into medieval Scottish music, which led him to studying with Sufi musicians in Istanbul and Morocco. He broadcast an entire solo concert on BBC Radio 3 from St John’s, Smith Square, London.

In 2004 he was Composer in Residence for Morgan Academy in Dundee, and in 2001 was Musician in Residence for Madras College in St Andrews. He created and Directed the Dundee Summer Music Festival. He has also been Lecturer in Scottish Musical History at Aberdeen University, Dundee University, and at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He is presently Musician In Residence to Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.
Cost: £10/£8 (Concessions) on the door on the night.
Contact: Neill Walker, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 0131 331 4469.