With Sarah Ghandour about a doctorate in music and exploring Slovenian folk music. #MetaPHoDcast Sarah Ghandour is a doctoral student at Stony Brook University in New York. She is a cellist and last year she spent a year in Ljubljana, Slovenia, as a Fulbright Scholar. She is affiliated with the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana. During her year in Ljubljana she explored Slovenian folk music and investigated whether there are any traditions from Middle Eastern music hidden in Slovenian tunes. The latter avenue of research stopped earlier, since there are no records or similarities in Slovenian folk music and Middle Eastern music. Nevertheless, Sarah became fascinated with the diversity of styles and tunes across Slovenia. Before starting her doctorate in music, she did a bachelor studies in music and math. Afterward she decided she wanted to develop further as a musician and explore music more in depth. During her doctorate she explored the world of Middle Eastern composers, especially Gamal Abdel Rahim and their connection to classical music originating from Central Europe. She performed recitals of Bach and Beethoven. During her stay in Ljubljana, Sarah spent long hours at the Slovenian Composer Society and Ethnomusicology Institute, where she dug into recordings of Slovenian folk songs. She also attended a lot of concerts of Slovenian composers and Slovenian music. Furthermore, she specifically focused on Prekmurje, Bela Krajina and Rezija. She prepared a recital with Slovenian folk songs arranged for cello. The cello, as she told me, is very close to vocal music, which enabled her to arrange a few vocal folk Slovenian songs. She got acquainted with other Slovenian musicians from Katice and Gugutke, with whom she performed with. She values the experience of connecting and developing music together during her time in Slovenia with her new musical friends. She recommends reading Interpreter of Maladies Jhumpa Lahiri that won a Pulitzer prize. The book is a collection of nine short stories about Indian and Indian-American people and what it is like to be between two countries. Additionally, she recommends Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, an epic novel about a Korean family that immigrated to Japan. She would invite Ella Fitzgerald for dinner. She values her time when she is not invigorated in research and music, and suggests any doctoral student finds a hobby outside of research. Furthermore, she loves to spend time in a climbing gym and has recently picked up print making and Salsa dancing. Sarah recommends switching perception and the anxiety that comes from uncertainty into curiosity and excitement, in her words, “how cool it is that I do not know all the amazing things yet to come.” In the podcast you can hear excerpts from Sarah Ghandour concert: Brez Besed (1996) by Mojmir Sepe Šla Bom Na Goro Visoko (arr. 2023) arranged by Sarah Ghandour ———— Meta PHoDcast 168: Sarah Ghandour, glasbenica S Sarah Ghandour o doktoratu iz glasbe in raziskovanju slovenske ljudske glasbe. Sarah Ghandour je doktorska študentka na Univerzi Stony Brook v New Yorku. Je violončelistka in je letos kot Fulbrightova štipendistka eno leto preživela v Ljubljani. Pri nas je sodelovala s Filozofsko fakulteto Univerze v Ljubljani. Med letom bivanja v Ljubljani je raziskovala slovensko ljudsko glasbo in ugotavljala, ali se v slovenskih melodijah skrivajo tradicije iz glasbe Bližnjega vzhoda. Toda ta pot raziskovanja se je že kmalu ustavila, saj v slovenski ljudski glasbi in glasbi Bližnjega vzhoda ni po...