Friday, October 19
The Center for the Arts presents
An evening of Middle Eastern Music and Dance
Helm featuring the dancers of
Venus Serpentina & Shekina Sehar
8:00PM, $18

Helm, along with the best artists of dance orientale in Nevada County, will take you on a music and dance journey, starting in Afghanistan and ending in Morocco. Going through Turkey you will discover the flavors of the Roman music, then moving south you will fell the warmth of the Shams and Egypt, then trance on the rhythms of the Magreb. Using original ethnic instruments, Helm brings the true flavors of the musical traditions of these regions.

Based in Marin County, California, Helm is best known for their "Tribal" accompaniment for California's best Middle Eastern dancers. In addition to presenting songs true to the traditions of the Arab world through folk and original compositions, Helm includes pieces from the classical Islamic heritage throughout the region in their repertoire: Egyptian, Andalusian, and Turkish. Further studies have added Turkish Rom and music from the Balkans as well.

Ling Shien Bell's music studies began on piano at the age of five. Her formal training in western music continued at the Music Conservatory in Aix-en-Provence. She started playing Arabic music shortly after meeting Mark in Southern California in 1979. Having already started playing recorder, a much more portable instrument than a piano to bring along while traveling, Ling Shien switched over to the nay to more accurately play Arabic music. She studied Arabic and Turkish disciplines at the source in Cairo and Istanbul.

Her interest in folkloric music, especially of Upper Egypt, led Ling Shien to pick up the mizmar (Arabic oboe), zumara (an ancient form of the clarinet), and kawala (a folkloric flute). She has added accordion into the mix as well to allow Helm to better represent the music of the Turkish Roman, the Balkans, and convey the atmosphere of the Golden Age of Egyptian compositions of the 20th century.

Ling Shien is the primary composer of Helm's original music. The songs convey both the life and soul of the folkloric and the accuracy of the classical.

Mark Bell started playing Middle Eastern percussion in 1972 and got his first gig that same year playing for Bal Anat. He performed many years in both Arabic and Persian nightclubs in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas, as well as many California Renaissance Faires. Nightclubs include the Baghdad, the Casbah, Apadana, Cabaret Tehran and Delilah's where he worked on a regular basis. Mark has traveled and studied percussion extensively throughout the Arab world. A partial listing of percussionists he has studied with include Mahmoud Hamouda in Egypt and Farhadman in Iran. This experience is reflected in his playing. This is why Arabs and Persians as well as American audiences appreciate his style.

Mark plays Arabic tabla (a hand drum also known as doumbek or darbukka), toumbak or zarb (a Persian hand drum), tabla beladi or davul (a type of bass drum usually played with sticks), and various instruments of the tambourine/ frame drum family. He also performs with the Armenian group, Mirage, the Arabic/American fusion band, Light Rain, the Greek group, The Aegeans, the Turkish group, Tufan, and, occasionally, with the Balkan group, Panacea. Mark won a Grammy in 2005 for his tracks on Beautiful Dreamer - Songs of Stephen Foster. Mark recorded the song Autumn Waltz with friends Henry Kaiser, Robin Petrie, and Paul Hostetter.

Larry Klein has been playing music since he got his first guitar at age 7. He has played just about every genre of music over the years. In the last 10 years, he has studied Turkish oud with Ustad Necati Celik & Ali Sinan Erdemsel, Persian Tar with Mohammed Nejad, Ashkan Qafari & Mohammed Reza Lotfi and Afghan Rebab with Ustad Rahim Khoshnavaz of Herat, and the Andaluse Music of North Africa from Maestro Omar Ait-Vimoun.

In addition to having a deep love and appreciation of middle-eastern music, Larry has become fluent in Farsi and is currently studying Turkish.

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www.helmmusic.com