Wearing a hand-stitched, black-and-red dress from Amman, Jordan, Sarah McDonald performed a classical Arabic song.

This was the first time a BYU vocal major focused on the Middle Eastern culture for her senior recital, McDonald said.

"I hope this recital program will spark a positive interest in Middle Eastern culture," McDonald said, "and provide a common ground for future contacts with Middle Easterners in the community."

McDonald, 25, a senior from Bothell, Wash., double majoring in Near Eastern Studies and vocal pedagogy, has lived in Jerusalem for five months at the Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies and in Damascus, Syria, for four months on a BYU Study Abroad program.

"This program was meant to represent a journey through the world of the Near East," McDonald said.

She represented the countries of Afghanistan, Israel, Syria, Iraq and the Western view of the Middle East, singing in seven Middle Eastern languages and French.

"When I sang the Arabic-Christian songs," McDonald said, "I closed my eyes, went back to the places I've been, and sang to my friends in Damascus and Jerusalem."

She said she discovered music and dance helped her make friends in the Middle East.

Lina Abdallah, 24, a graduate student from Jerusalem studying MPA, said McDonald's tone of voice made the Hebrew songs sound wonderful.

"I've been studying classical voice for nine years," McDonald said.

The Persian musical style is almost like a yodel, she said. It was hard to sing them because her classical training taught her to hide vocal breaks.

Aside from spotlighting McDonald's vocal performance, the recital highlighted Middle Eastern instruments. McDonald gathered a few select musicians from BYU and Salt Lake to play the special instruments. Lloyd Miller played the santur, Katherine St. John played the zarb, and Secily Saunders played the 'oud and the rabab.

The 'oud is a large, stringed instrument that the musician strums. McDonald said the guitar's origin came from the 'oud.

Paul Hunt, 24, senior from Joseph City, Ariz., majoring in international studies, said, "I didn't know how much the Arabic culture influences ours."

He said we base a lot of our music tradition today on the guitar, which had its roots in the Middle East.

David Layton, 25, senior from Anchorage, Alaska, majoring in Russian, said, "It was impressive how she brought everyone else into this love she has for the Middle Eastern culture."

Copyright Brigham Young University 3 Apr 2002