UMS in the Classroom: The Knights with Avi Avital, Kinan Azmeh, and Colin Jacobsen

By UMS

Interested in using a UMS performance in your university classroom? For each performance on the season, we provide suggested curricular connections, links to contextual material online, citations for scholarly material, and prompts for classroom discussion. For additional resources and individualized curricular support, please contact Shannon Fitzsimons Moen, UMS Campus Engagement Specialist, at skfitz@umich.edu or (734) 764-3903.

UMS is also committed to making our performances an affordable part of the academic experience. Our Classroom Ticket Program provides $15 tickets to students and faculty for performances that are a course requirement. Please email umsclasstickets@umich.edu to set up a group order.

Connect:

This performance may connect meaningfully with courses in the following schools and disciplines:

Comparative Literature
Germanic Languages and Literatures
Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies
History
History of Art
Organizational Studies
Political Science
Composition
Music Education
Music Theory
Musicology
Conducting
Winds & Percussion
Piano
Strings
Business

Explore:

Learn more about The Knights on their official website.
Clarinetist Kinan Azmah is featured in the documentary The Music of Strangers (2016), about Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble.
Discover the history of Felix Mendelssohn’s “Songs Without Words”, and consider how the Knights’s performance reflects on the original work.
Amanda Bayley analyzes “Developing Dialogues in Intercultural Music-Making” in The Routledge International Handbook of Intercultural Arts Research (Routledge, 2016).

Reflect:

Discuss the similarities and differences between the Purcell, Golijov, Bach, and traditional pieces on the program. What qualities does each piece bring out in the instruments and the musicians? Why do you think the Knights constructed the program in this way?
This concert program juxtaposes the Baroque-era music of Henry Purcell and J.S. Bach with original music from Middle Eastern, Balkan, and Klezmer sources. How do the different musical styles represented on this program come together to create a unified concert experience?