Megumi & Friends will perform three concerts in Bay Ridge, East New York, and Prosepct Lefferts Garden with Megumi Saruhashi’s compositions inspired by three places she calls home, Brooklyn, Egypt and Japan as well as Arabic music from the Golden Era. Megumi is a non-Arab artist working with Arab artists, instruments, and traditions. Megumi does not believe in the binary thinking that sees cross-cultural artistry as entirely positive or negative. Rather, she believes that HOW she moves and interacts is essential: she enters this work with humility, honoring the cultural differences and histories that birthed and continue to expand these musical traditions. Megumi acknowledges and reflects on my own power as a Japanese-American artist. And she approaches Arab music as what it is: a living tradition, not, as many non-Arabs think, a museum piece.

Photo by Hirofumi Tanaka, 2022