Eden MacAdam-Somer: From Houston to Kabul and back
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The person who listens to music will, on the day of judgment, have molten lead poured into their ears as a punishment. That’s how the Taliban justified their ban on professional musicians, particularly women, when they took power in Afghanistan in 1996.
Houston native, Eden MacAdam-Somer, arrived at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music after the ban on music was officially lifted. The institute’s director, Ahmad Sarmast, had left the country during Taliban rule. He immediately returned, after the collapse of Taliban rule, to reopen the music school.
“Ahmad was focused on bringing music and music education back to Afghanistan,” said MacAdam-Somer. “The student body is aged 9-21. They study academics and music. A friend went there in 2010 to help organize a winter music festival. She called and asked if I could come.”
It’s hard to imagine a musician who is more antithetical to the Taliban than Eden MacAdam-Somer. She soars when she plays a technically rigorous Debussy sonata, a bluegrass fiddle tune with her band, Notorious Folk, and when she sings in Yiddish.
MacAdam-Somer will be in concert on June 24 at 2:30 p.m., in the Dudley Recital Hall on the UH campus (first floor of the Fine Arts Building near entrance 16). The concert is part of the Fredell Lack Legacy Violin Series, and will feature UH faculty pianist Timothy Hester. The Fredell Lack Legacy Violin Series at the Moores School of Music, established by its namesake in 2017, honors the legendary violinist by bringing world-class musical artists to the university for special performances. Lack served as the C. W. Moores professor of violin at UH for five decades, inspiring countless students over the years, such as MacAdam-Somer.
MacAdam-Somer is a graduate of the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. “Back then, I was a very undisciplined young musician,” she told the JHV. “I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it professionally.
“My goals changed by my sophomore year at UH. It was being around the high level of the junior and senior class musicians. It was the first time I was surrounded by music for the largest part of my day. It’s also when I started studying with Fredell Lack. Thanks to her, I wanted to be an orchestra musician, to be in the middle of all that great sound.”
Off campus, Houston opened up the opportunity for the young violinist to follow her passion for making music, wherever it took her.
“For example, I found the local contra-dance scene where the core music consists of fiddle tunes,” said MacAdam-Somer. “My parents would drive me and my friend over to the Heights. The Houston Area Traditional Dance Society was a welcoming bunch. They taught us how to contra-dance.
“Thanks to that community, I joined a band and was introduced to the Irish session at the Mucky Duck. That’s where I met Mary Ann Harbar, who connected me with the Gypsies (the acoustic band fronted by Greg Harbar). Their mandolinist, Dave Peters, had his own Americana group, and I started playing with them. That’s where I got into playing jazz and swing.”
So, MacAdam-Somer was studying classical music at UH all day, and playing with the Gypsies all night. And, some extremists try to tell you it’s a sin to feel this way!
In her Houston concert, MacAdam-Somer will be walking through her musical life.
“I’ll be doing Ravel’s ‘Tzigane,’ a piece I studied with Lack as a teenager. I’ll be playing with Timothy Hester, who I played with at my senior recital. Back then, I took off my shoes and played it barefoot. Timothy did, too, although he was wearing a suit.
“I will also be performing Debussy’s Sonata For Violin and Piano. The score I use was Lack’s and contains her suggestions in pencil and her own markings. Then, I will be playing a song cycle I wrote, called ‘Rumi Songs.’ The piece draws on many influences, from classical to folk to John Coltrane.
“The program also includes ‘Jump For Joy’ and ‘Mood Indigo,’ two pieces by Duke Ellington, and a new piece called ‘A Flame In Flight,’ by a mentor and colleague, Robert Cogan.
“I will also be singing a Jewish folksong in Yiddish, ‘In Drosyn Iz Finster.’ These days I’m working with Hankus Netsky, singing and playing violin with the Klezmer Conservatory Band. Hankus and I are putting out a duo album this fall, titled ‘Give Me Back My Heart.’”
For those who want to hear MacAdam-Somer perform more Yiddish and klezmer music, she’s planning a concert at the Evelyn Rubenstein JCC in May 2019.
Houston native, Eden MacAdam-Somer, arrived at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music after the ban on music was officially lifted. The institute’s director, Ahmad Sarmast, had left the country during Taliban rule. He immediately returned, after the collapse of Taliban rule, to reopen the music school.
“Ahmad was focused on bringing music and music education back to Afghanistan,” said MacAdam-Somer. “The student body is aged 9-21. They study academics and music. A friend went there in 2010 to help organize a winter music festival. She called and asked if I could come.”
It’s hard to imagine a musician who is more antithetical to the Taliban than Eden MacAdam-Somer. She soars when she plays a technically rigorous Debussy sonata, a bluegrass fiddle tune with her band, Notorious Folk, and when she sings in Yiddish.
MacAdam-Somer will be in concert on June 24 at 2:30 p.m., in the Dudley Recital Hall on the UH campus (first floor of the Fine Arts Building near entrance 16). The concert is part of the Fredell Lack Legacy Violin Series, and will feature UH faculty pianist Timothy Hester. The Fredell Lack Legacy Violin Series at the Moores School of Music, established by its namesake in 2017, honors the legendary violinist by bringing world-class musical artists to the university for special performances. Lack served as the C. W. Moores professor of violin at UH for five decades, inspiring countless students over the years, such as MacAdam-Somer.
MacAdam-Somer is a graduate of the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. “Back then, I was a very undisciplined young musician,” she told the JHV. “I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it professionally.
“My goals changed by my sophomore year at UH. It was being around the high level of the junior and senior class musicians. It was the first time I was surrounded by music for the largest part of my day. It’s also when I started studying with Fredell Lack. Thanks to her, I wanted to be an orchestra musician, to be in the middle of all that great sound.”
Off campus, Houston opened up the opportunity for the young violinist to follow her passion for making music, wherever it took her.
“For example, I found the local contra-dance scene where the core music consists of fiddle tunes,” said MacAdam-Somer. “My parents would drive me and my friend over to the Heights. The Houston Area Traditional Dance Society was a welcoming bunch. They taught us how to contra-dance.
“Thanks to that community, I joined a band and was introduced to the Irish session at the Mucky Duck. That’s where I met Mary Ann Harbar, who connected me with the Gypsies (the acoustic band fronted by Greg Harbar). Their mandolinist, Dave Peters, had his own Americana group, and I started playing with them. That’s where I got into playing jazz and swing.”
So, MacAdam-Somer was studying classical music at UH all day, and playing with the Gypsies all night. And, some extremists try to tell you it’s a sin to feel this way!
In her Houston concert, MacAdam-Somer will be walking through her musical life.
“I’ll be doing Ravel’s ‘Tzigane,’ a piece I studied with Lack as a teenager. I’ll be playing with Timothy Hester, who I played with at my senior recital. Back then, I took off my shoes and played it barefoot. Timothy did, too, although he was wearing a suit.
“I will also be performing Debussy’s Sonata For Violin and Piano. The score I use was Lack’s and contains her suggestions in pencil and her own markings. Then, I will be playing a song cycle I wrote, called ‘Rumi Songs.’ The piece draws on many influences, from classical to folk to John Coltrane.
“The program also includes ‘Jump For Joy’ and ‘Mood Indigo,’ two pieces by Duke Ellington, and a new piece called ‘A Flame In Flight,’ by a mentor and colleague, Robert Cogan.
“I will also be singing a Jewish folksong in Yiddish, ‘In Drosyn Iz Finster.’ These days I’m working with Hankus Netsky, singing and playing violin with the Klezmer Conservatory Band. Hankus and I are putting out a duo album this fall, titled ‘Give Me Back My Heart.’”
For those who want to hear MacAdam-Somer perform more Yiddish and klezmer music, she’s planning a concert at the Evelyn Rubenstein JCC in May 2019.