Instrumental studies
Ud

In this two-year master’s program, you will continue to develop your technical and improvisational skills, while exploring the ud’s expressive potential across jazz and world music traditions. 

Through masterworks from both classical and contemporary Arabic and Middle Eastern repertoires, and customized exercises designed according to your level and experience, you will develop your technique by focusing on good sound, good posture, left-hand positioning and fingering, intonation, and plectrum patterns. In addition, you will develop your improvisational skills in both metric and nonmetric forms (taqsim), focusing on maqam pathways, phrasing and motivic development, and rhythmic awareness. 

Eventually, the program will guide you in integrating modal traditions with jazz and world music harmony and rhythms, and to develop a personal artistic voice, shaped by your individual background, experiences, and stylistic influence.