Music Scholars     

Dr. Anis Nor:  

Pioneer on Zapin Studies   

Mohd Anis Md Nor is Professor of Ethnochoreology and Ethnomusicology at the Cultural Center (School of Performing Arts), University of Malaya. Anis has pioneered the study of Zapin dance and music in Southeast Asia and has published widely on the topic. He was appointed as the Advisory Committee of the Islamic World Arts Initiative (IWAI) supported by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art for the period of 2004-2005. His recent published article is "Malay-Islamic Zapin: Dance and Soundscapes from the Straits of Malacca". He is a 2011 Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan sponsored by the School of Music, Dance and Theatre, Center for Southeast Asian Studies and Center for World Performance Studies.

Citation: Posted picture retrieved here

Dr. Razia Sultanova:  

Expert on Gender and Music     

Razia Sultanova is the Director of the Centre for Central Asian music at University of Cambridge, and also a Fellow at Cambridge Central Asia Forum, University of Cambridge. Her primary areas of research are Central Asian and Middle Eastern music, Islam and music, and gender and music. Her recent publications concern the musical traditions of the Islamic world, at present produced by I.B. Tauris as a monograph "From Shamanism to Sufism: Women and Islam in Central Asian Culture". Razia Sultanova has edited the book "Sacred Knowledge: Schools or Revelations. Master-Apprentice Music Training in the Turkic Speaking World" published in October 2009 by Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany.

Dr. Usopay Cadar:

Maranao Muslim Music Scholar  

Usopay H. Cadar is the Project Director and Master Performer of the Mindanao Kulintang Ensemble. He has taught music of Southeast Asia, with a focus on the Maranao music (from a predominantly Muslim region in the southern Philippines), at the University of Washington, Queen's University of Belfast, and Mindanao State University. Cadar is a talented performer who has introduced traditional Fililpino gong music to both the academic and the community environs of the West, and has directed and performed this music, including kulintang, in various concerts. He has published many articles on Maranao music , including "Kolintang's Uniquely American Success" (forthcoming, part of a volume pblished by the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan), "The Maranao Kolintang Music and Its Journey in America" and "The Role of Kolintang Music in Maranao Society".  

Musics with Islamic Influence 

Queen of Sufi Music: Abida Perveen  

Abida Parveen: Sufi Poetry Singer   (with English Subtitle)

Abida Perveen is a rarity in the world of Sufi music, a female lead performer from Pakistan. She is a singer of Sindhi descent and one of the foremost exponents of Sufi music (Sufiana kalaam). She also is the finest singer of ghazal, geet and sindhi, seraiki and punjabi kafees. Abida Parveen sings in Urdu, Sindhi, Seraiki, Punjabi and Persian, and together with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is considered one of the finest Sufi vocalists of the modern era. She performed in New York last year.

Malay-Islamic Zapin:  

Musical Dance Revival by Anis Nor 

Malay-Islamic Zapin (Yayasan Warisan Johor, Malaysia)

The dance is called Zapin Tenglu, one of the many types of zapin dances in Malaysia. This type of zapin dance originated from the state of Johor and among the most popular Malay folk dance in Malaysia. The dancers are among professional zapin dancers from Johor's Heritage Foundation funded by the State of Johor Government (Yayasan Warisan Johor) where, Dr. Anis Nor has been responsible in the Zapin revival program in Johor since 1994. The syncretic combination of Arab and Malay performance elements seen in this dance with the extensive use of dance and music notations.

Voice and Soul of Uzbekistan  

by Razia Sultanova

Razia Sultanova: An Academician who Promotes Sufi Heritage from Central Asia

A clip on Dr. Razia Sultanova, an academician on Central Asia music who occasionally perform to promote Sufi heritage from Central Asia. In this clip she sung a short 16 century song by Uzbek Sufi's poet Mashrab. She also organized Nouruz Ensemble in 2005. The aim of the group Nouruz, is to share with their audiences the atmosphere of celebrations and festivities, from Central Asia. Performed on authentic folk instruments, Nouruz's programme combines classical music, folk music and dances, wedding songs, meditative munajats, 19th century compositions, and women's ritual music from Central Asia.  

Usopay Cadar with Mindanao Kulintang Ensemble

In this video, the Mindanao Kulintang Ensemble accompanies Maimona, Dr. Usopay Cadar's sister, as she plays the kulintang. Kolintang (the Maranao spelling of "kulintang") is a term used to describe the centerpiece melody instrument of horizontally laid kettle gongs and the ensemble made up of the kolintang, large hanging gongs (agong), drum (dabakan) and other instruments. Dr. Cadar is noted as a pioneer in Maranao kolintang to academia and various communities nationally and internationally.

Call for Participation   

Call for Class Registration:

Sociology of Muslim Societies Class 

Call for Papers:

Muslim Religious Authority in Contemporary Asia Workshop 

Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore invites those who are interested in participating in the workshop to submit original paper proposals. This workshop will develop a nuanced assessment of the developing roles of Muslim religious leaders (ulama) in modern Asia, pursued through contextualized studies of social, legal and political dynamics of Islamic religious leadership in diverse Asian contexts.

Deadline for submission: 1 July 2011

Call for Panels:

Sacred Precincts: Non-Muslim Sites

in Islamic Societies

This panel on sacred architecture invites papers which examine structures and spaces created by and for non-Muslims in predominantly Muslim societies from the emergence of Islam in the 7th century to the present day.  Papers may focus on a single monument, a building type, a particular city or region, a faith other than Islam, or any other topic relevant to the historical presence of non-Muslim sacred architecture in Islamic cultures.

Deadline for submission: 1 June 2011

Abstract Dateline: 18 April 2011     

2012 International Conference on Religion and Spirituality in Society    
20 to 22 February 2012
Vancouver, Canada
Abstract Dateline: 5 May 2011

Full Paper Submission: 5 October 2011