Musical Evenings

Recognizing the deep connection between music and the human spirit, and its profound impact on the soul, the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation launched a musical program in 2014. This initiative includes:

• Regular Monthly Musical Evenings at the foundation, providing a platform for promising Jordanian talents. These events take place on a Thursday evening each month.
• Annual Musical Evenings featuring prominent Arab and international artists to introduce global musical experiences, held specifically at the Odeon Theater in downtown Amman.
• Musical Evenings Beyond the Foundation’s Premises as part of the Amman Cultural Week and Abdul Hameed Shoman Cultural Days in various governorates.

Driven by the foundation’s belief in the accessibility of arts to all societal segments, all these events are free of charge.

Monthly Musical Evenings

These evenings primarily spotlight young talents, authentic musical projects, and innovative endeavors. They also feature events celebrating musical heritage and exploring diverse musical genres.

Each year, special days are dedicated to highlighting significant instruments in Arab music, such as Oud Day and Qanun Day. The evenings also honor Arab music pioneers, showcasing their works and introducing musical styles through performances by artists like Talal Abu Al-Ragheb, Hassan Al-Faqir, Ayman Tayseer, and Charbel Rouhana.

Sound and Color Evenings

These summer musical evenings are held in the open air on the rooftop of the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation in Jabal Amman. They combine music with visual arts by featuring:

• An art exhibition highlighting pieces from the foundation’s collection.
• A dedicated drawing space.

During these events, various forms of art converge, celebrating works by renowned visual artists like Marwan Kassab-Bashi, George Bahgoury, and Mohammad Al-Jalous.

To explore the foundation’s art collection, click here.

Musical Evenings in Downtown Amman

These annual events, lasting two to three days, celebrate prominent Arab and international musicians while fostering collaboration between them and Jordanian artists. Held at the Odeon Theater in June or July, these evenings include:

• Collaborative performances between local and global artists, promoting musical exchange.
• Orchestral showcases, providing independent and exceptional musicians with the opportunity to deliver solo performances accompanied by an orchestra, highlighting their talent in a comprehensive musical setting.

Musical Evenings During Abdul Hameed Shoman Cultural Days (Amman Cultural Week and Governorate Cultural Days)

Musical evenings play a pivotal role in these cultural days, often marking the opening or closing ceremonies—or both.

These events are tailored to respect the cultural sensitivities of the hosting region. They aim to present a rich musical experience, sometimes featuring local orchestras or culturally significant performances, such as:

• Beit Al-Ruwwad performances on the Jara Theater stage during Amman Cultural Week.
• Opening events in Aqaba with the Simsimiyya Band preceding a concert by Tarek Al-Jundi.
• Children's choir performances during cultural days in Irbid, among others.

These activities emphasize both local engagement and broader cultural enrichment, bridging communities through music.

Musical Guide

The Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation approaches musical endeavors based on several principles that align with its goals, outcomes, and a selective process for choosing musicians.

Goals of Musical Activities

The foundation’s musical initiatives aim to:

1. Enhance the institution’s musical and cultural output in alignment with its vision, mission, and identity.
2. Provide a platform to celebrate emerging Jordanian musical talents.
3. Introduce the audience to various musical genres.
4. Present diverse and authentic musical performances.
5. Preserve and revive Jordanian and Arab musical heritage.
6. Celebrate distinguished Jordanian musical figures through dedicated events.
7. Deliver sustainable cultural musical programming in the Jordanian cultural scene.
8. Offer Jordanian artists opportunities to exchange knowledge and develop skills by collaborating with prominent Arab and international musicians.

Outcomes of Musical Activities

1. Musical Events: Approximately 13 events annually, held at the foundation, in downtown Amman, and during Shoman Cultural Days in Amman and the governorates, featuring numerous performers and drawing thousands of attendees each year.
2. Annual Music Album: Distributed annually in limited copies.
3. Enriching Arab Musical Content Online: Live streaming of events and their documentation on the foundation’s YouTube channel, allowing audiences to view them anytime.

Policies and Criteria

To ensure high-quality musical outputs, the foundation follows strict guidelines regarding musician selection and event structure:

1. Focus on Emerging Jordanian Talents: Priority is given to local rising stars and promising musical experiments.
2. Authenticity and Value: Musicians must present original talents, works, or projects that offer added cultural value.
3. Alignment with the Foundation’s Values: Performers and their projects must reflect the foundation’s vision, mission, and identity.
4. Program Diversity: Musicians are selected to ensure a varied program that includes singing, instrumental performances, heritage preservation, and innovative creations.
5. Avoidance of Vulgarity: Performances and appearances must maintain a high standard and avoid superficiality.
6. Instrument Celebration Days: One day each year is dedicated to celebrating a key instrument in Arab music, such as Oud Day or Qanun Day.
7. Honoring Music Pioneers: One or two days annually are set aside to recognize prominent Jordanian or regional musicians.
8. Event Variety: Musical evenings are designed to showcase a wide range of instruments and genres, including Tarab, jazz, classical music, fusion, and modern experimental works.

Music and programs

Works and musical books in the library
The library's holdings amount to about 194257 books (186256) books in the Mount Amman branch, (7,501) books in the Ashrafieh branch, and (500) books in the Zarqa branch in Both Arabic and English, collections of ongoing periodicals, audiobooks, audio-visual materials, maps, lectures, and publications. The library's books are numerous including science, literature, politics, economics, and the arts, and music is no exception, with the library containing 528 books in music.
Music and poetry evenings 
Poetry occupies a great place among the literary arts, as it addresses the conscience of the feelings of the recipients and uses language close to their hearts, and has a key role among the Arab peoples, where it is used to express the thoughts and ideas in their minds in all fields, so the Foundation has been holding poetry evenings since its founding, but since 2017 it has been used by the poet to accompany a musical background performed by creative local musicians to blend art forms and offer beautiful evenings to the audience.
In a poetry evening to publicize the evil divan of love, novelist and poet Ibrahim Nasrallah was accompanied by Tarek al-Jundi (Oud), Samirat (Violin), Khaled Belawi (Cello), and Nasser Salameh (Rhythm). During a poetry evening for the poets, Mared and Tamim Barghouti, and the publicity of the book "All the Oppressed Wings" by the Egyptian late Radwa Ashour, the musicians Raleigh Barghouthi (Law) and Omar Abad (Oud) participated.
During a poetry evening for Dr. Maha Al-Atum and Abboud al-Jabri, and a poetry evening by Ghadeer Haddadin and Wafa Jabour, the musical background was the sound of the oud by Essam Alian, during a poetry evening by Ghazi Al-Tiba, a poetry evening by Amani Al-Mubarak and Doaa Al-Bayata, the musical background was the voice of the Qanun by Hammam Eid.

Music and children 
Believing in the promising role of children and young people in shaping the future, the Foundation has been keen for years to create an environment that stimulates their creativity through its integrated programs, including a library dedicated to children and young people "The Path of Knowledge", training workshops, activities, space for innovation and numerous awards, and the fact that music is part of creativity has incorporated music into many activities offered by the Knowledge Path Library for children, for example: 
The Foundation has conducted several musical exercises for the pioneers of the Children's Knowledge Path Library as a popular musical identity workshop for young pioneers of the Knowledge Path Library to revive old folk musical instruments and introduce the generation to them, and training on the basics of playing the flute and how to make it, which aims to identify musical instruments "flute, youth", how to get the sound out of the flute correctly, read notes, organize and control the way of breathing and others.

Over two years, The Knowledge Path Library established the Knowledge Path Choir, which includes intensive full-year music training through more than 30 training sessions, including singing, playing simple musical instruments, and then holding a concert at the end of every training to allow young people to express themselves through music, increase their self-confidence, and discover talent and abilities in a stimulating and positive way.

Even the usual activities of the Children's Knowledge Path Library have consistently included music: during summer and winter clubs, there is a period of music axis that introduces children to music and musicians, anecdotal readings include stories and musical books.

As for the awards, the Foundation has created a full field of music in the Creativity Award for Children and Youth (Abdeh), an award that gives talented people a serious opportunity to express themselves and prepares them to be part of the general cultural, cognitive, and creative landscape, which is a sign of the progress of nations and their cultural sophistication.

Musical projects supported by the Foundation 
Because the foundation believes in the importance and usefulness of the musical act, the Foundation has provided material support to many actors to work in parallel with it to serve the musical act, spread the musical culture and make the arts available to all, and when you click here you can see the musical projects supported by the Foundation.
 

Past Musical Evenings

The Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation records, documents, and uploads its musical evenings to its YouTube channel and social media accounts, in addition to producing cd versions of them each year to enrich Arabic music content and make it available to all.
The number of cd releases reached five, with each CD containing approximately ten songs performed each evening, and the recorded evenings are all available to watch here. The figures fulfill the principles of fine art, preserve it, and make it available to all.