About

Maqām Studio is a gathering space and a point of connection between traditional musical knowledge and contemporary listeners. Our mission is to ensure the continuity and survival of maqam musical traditions among communities of the Muslim and Arab worlds and their diasporas, while expanding their possibilities within contemporary musical and artistic forms. Maqam, an Arabic word that means status or place, refers to the musical modes forming the basis of musical genres in the Arab, Persianate, Turkic worlds and beyond. It is a common musical grammar mastered by millions of people with different linguistic, ethnic, and religious backgrounds.

Maqām Studio operates five core programs dedicated to documenting, sharing, and developing maqam musics.

  • The Circle of Samā’ is a monthly performance series in Brooklyn that brings audiences to an intimate listening setting with musicians.

  • Maqām Records commissions and produces music albums featuring new arrangements of traditional works and new compositions.

  • Maqām Residency supports artists by providing the space and creative freedom to brainstorm, practice, and realize their musical ideas.

  • Maqām Education connects master musicians to younger generations seeking to develop their musical practice.

  • Maqām Archive is home to thousands of rare recordings from Iraqi traditional music and beyond with an aim to bring forgotten sounds back to life.

Team

  • Artist and Artistic Director

    Described in the New York Times as “the celebrated trumpeter and composer who explores vital connections between jazz and Arabic music,” Amir ElSaffar is an Iraqi-American trumpeter, santur player, vocalist, and composer who has received international recognition for his work combining jazz, Western classical, and Maqam music of Iraq and the Middle East. ElSaffar leads the six-piece Two Rivers and 17-piece Rivers of Sound Orchestra, which have released several critically acclaimed albums and have toured the world. He has also received commissions from festivals and institutions in the U.S., Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East to create new works for symphony orchestras, string quartets, mixed chamber ensembles, jazz, and Arabic music ensembles, as well as collaborations with Flamenco, Raga, and North African and sub-Saharan Trance Musicians.

  • Artist and Musical Expert

    Hamid Al-Saadi is an Iraqi Maqam reciter, and the only person in his generation to have memorized and mastered all pieces of the traditional Baghdadi repertoire. Since the 1980s, Al-Saadi has remained one of the few vocalists keeping the Iraqi Maqam alive at a time when many elements of this profound genre are in danger of extinction. In 2004, he wrote al-Maqam wa-Buhur al-Angham (Maqam and the Oceans of Melodies), one of the most comprehensive books on the Iraqi Maqam and its poetry. Since 2018, Al-Saadi has been based  the US, where he has performed at numerous venues, including Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, the Smithsonian’s Freer and Sackler Museum, and Kennedy Center Jazz Club, and has taught weekly classes at Sarah Lawrence College. In 2025, Al-Saadi released Maqam Al-Iraq,on Maqām Records, his first release in over two decades and one of the few commercially available Iraqi Maqam recordings. 

  • Archive Manager and Researcher

    Farah Zahra is an ethnomusicologist, archivist, and oud player. She serves as the manager of the Maqām Archive. Her role includes archiving and documenting rare and historical recordings of maqam music from the region, with a special focus on the Iraqi Maqam. Farah completed her PhD, MPhil, and MA in music at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Since 2021, she has been working on digitizing and documenting rare recordings of Iraqi music, as well as writing about their social context and their role in preserving cultural memory. In 2017, she earned a Master's in Theological Studies from Harvard University, where she worked on cataloguing the Loeb Music Library’s shellac records of Arab music. In addition to her research and archival work, Farah also studied oud performance in Egypt and Iraq.

  • Advisor

    Writer, professor, and feminist, Zahra Ali was born in Paris to Iraqi refugee parents. She grew up in France, lived in Iraq, and is now based in New York City. She is associate professor of Sociology at Rutgers University-Newark, and the founder of Critical Studies of Iraq, an initiative dedicated to centering the work of scholars, feminists, and activists in Iraq. She writes about people surviving loss and exile, finding meaning and beauty in rising up against oppression, dictatorship, and war. She is the author of Women and Gender in Iraq published by Cambridge University Press, and co-editor of Decolonial Pluriversalism published by Rowman and Littlefield. Zahra also sings Iraqi Maqam that she learned from Hamid al-Saadi, its foremost representative, and is the mother of Zuhoor.

  • Creative Media and Promotions Coordinator

    Buyana Jargalsaikhan is a dynamic content strategist and creative director. Born in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where heritage meets innovation, she developed a distinctive approach to audience engagement through strategic storytelling and visual communication. After studying Creative Direction & Fashion Styling at Istituto Marangoni in London, Buyana returned to Mongolia to found Gray Minds, the country's first independent digital magazine. This platform showcases her ability to build brand identity, cultivate audience relationships, and develop targeted content strategies in emerging markets. Her coordination skills extend to organizing high-impact events that connect creators with audiences, amplifying reach and fostering community engagement. To deepen her understanding of art's societal impact, Buyana pursued a Master's in Arts & Cultural Management at Pratt Institute in New York, complementing her practical expertise with a strong theoretical foundation.

Supporters

The programs of the Maqām Studio are made possible thanks to the generous support of institutions and individual donors. We are grateful for the support of:

Internships

Maqām Studio is dedicated to training and supporting students and young professionals seeking careers in the fields of music production, music performance, production management, archives and library sciences, marketing, and arts administration. Since Spring 2025,  Maqām Studio has served as an institutional partner to the CUNY Cultural Corps Program by hosting interns from the City University of New York colleges.

We are currently accepting inquiries and supporting internship opportunities for university students and people beginning their careers. For more information, don't hesitate to get in touch with us at info@maqamstudio.com