Date: September 16, 2008 (Friday)
Time: 6:00 P.M.
Place: Millennium Stage
Tickets: free and open to the public on a first-come, first-serve basis
Nadim Dlaikan, recognized nationwide as a premier maker of flutes and Michigan’s NEA Heritage Award winner, performs on his Lebanese nye (reed flute). This is Mr. Dlaikan's second performance at the Kennedy Center.
Nadim Dlaikan was born in Alai, Lebanon, in 1941, and began playing the nye (a reed flute) when he was just a child. Although his family discouraged him from playing this instrument because it was associated with lowly shepherds, he persisted and even found ways to make his own flutes out of locally-grown reeds.
Mr. Dlaikan began studying after school with Naim Bitar, the country’s premiere flutist at the Lebanese Conservatory. Upon graduation he moved to Beirut, and traveled frequently throughout the Middle East as part of Lebanon’s best-known folk troupe. In 1969 a staff member at the U.S. Embassy heard him playing at a Fourth of July party and encouraged him to perform in the United States. Mr. Dlaikan first came to the U.S. as a back-up musician for Lebanese pop singer Samira Tawfik. Eventually he settled in Detroit, home to the largest and most diverse Arab community in the country.
Within this cultural mix, he is recognized as a teacher of tradition and the artistic glue that holds both musical groups and the community together. He is a NEA National Heritage Fellow and in addition to this, he is recognized nationwide as a premiere maker of flutes and a master of his own unique musical traditions.
Performance:
Millennium Stage archive video
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