Don’t Let Me Be Lost To You: Early 20th Century Near Eastern Music in New York City

A talk-and-record-listening event by researcher and record producer Ian Nagoski of Canary Records.

At the height of immigration to the United States 100 years ago, a wave of people from the collapsing Ottoman Empire settled in the U.S. At the same time, the New York City record industry documented and distributed music by performers from present-day Turkey, Syria, Armenia, Lebanon, and Egypt. And then, for a half-century, those recordings were neglected. Who were these musicians? Where did they go? How did their work affect America?

“Nagoski’s approach is great, because he’s got a DJ’s ear, and he’s got this historian’s perspective. He’s looking at these songs as somewhere between a poem and an autobiography.” – Jace Clayton, DJ/rupture

Co-sponsored with the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Music and the Center for Middle East Studies.