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Cameron Powers
- 67, Male
- boulder, colorado
- United States
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- About Me:
- Cameron Powers -- Biography
Fascination with Peruvian Indian peoples encountered on mountaineering expeditions led Cameron to spend 8 years going to and from Andean villages back in the 1960’s and 70’s. He immediately discovered the value of learning to play their music with them as an easy aid to bonding in trust and friendship.
Cameron graduated with BA in Anthropology and Linguistics, University of Colorado, Boulder, with an emphasis on the study of Quechua, the language of the Incas.
Cameron also received a fellowship to attend a two-month intensive immersion program in Quechua at Cornell University. It was there that he began to realize the value of being a musician as well as a linguist.
Cameron also received a scholarship to work on a Doctoral program in Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He continued to study the Inca language and began studies of the Tibetan language.
Again he experienced a great contrast between the warmth of his musically-oriented “extended family” in Peru versus the de-humanizing “computer-translation-oriented” approach that other American linguists were pursuing.
In 1973 Cameron lived in Greece with the Papanastassiou family and studied Greek language and Greek music.
Returning to Boulder, Colorado, Cameron performed Greek music and began the study of Arabic music with various local bands: “The Silk Route,” “The Boulder Bouzouki Band,” and “Solspice.”
He created Musical Instruments, Houses, Spanish Language Teaching Programs in Boulder while raising his children.
He began performing Middle Eastern and Balkan music with “Sherefe” in Boulder and travelled with the band to New Mexico and California for additional performances and studies.
Cameron has a long association, since 1986, with Middle Eastern Music Camp which takes place every summer in Mendocino, California. He has studied with Nasser Musa, George Lammam, Haig Manoukian, Faruk Tekbilek, Nabil Azzam, and many others. He has studied with Simon Shaheen at Arabic Music Retreat in Mt. Holyoke, Mass. And he has studied with numerous musicians whom he has met on travels in Turkey, Egypt and Morocco.
After the events in New York on 9/11, a pall was cast on his role as an American playing Middle Eastern Music. “Terrorism” had somehow entered the music. Gigs were cancelled; people became nervous about producing Middle Eastern Music-oriented shows.
Knowing full well from his travels in the Middle East and from his extensive chain of friendships with Middle Eastern musicians that there is a warm reception available to anyone, including Americans, who wish to travel the Middle East, he realized the importance of continuing his “musical missions.”
Just now back from Iraq, Egypt, Jordan and Palestine, he and his partner, Kristina, are eagerly awaiting opportunities to travel in the US and help people understand the Middle Eastern, Arabic, psyche.
- Website:
- http://musicalmissions.com
| Cameron and Kristina: Two Americans... --who have learned to perform popular Arabic Music... Since the Fall of 2002 they have been on the road in the Arab-speaking world and in America ... ...so that Americans can see more clearly who the Arabic-speaking people really are... ...and so that Arabs can see that there are Americans who love Arab music and culture and who do not believe that war is the answer... "Musical Missionaries" are "Missionaries in Reverse": They Travel to Learn, not to Teach |
Cameron Powers's Photos
Cameron Powers's Blog
My book The Spiritual Traveler, by Cameron Powers
Posted on November 20, 2007 at 1:00am 2 Comments 0 Likes
Cameron and Kristina, pursuing their own brand of diplomacy as “Musical Ambassadors”, were on the streets of Baghdad singing popular Iraqi music with Iraqi citizens during the spring of 2003.
They have now made four trips to other Arab-world nations as well between 2002 and 2005 carrying their “Musical Missions of Peace” through…
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I'm interested to talk to you about your musical background. Leave me a note, if you could.
M
The first Ambassadors’ Leadership Forum of the new year will take place on January 20th. We are fortunate to have, as our keynote speaker, Cameron Powers, who will present “A Musician's Cross-Cultural Perspective on Peace in the Middle East”. Cameron’s presentation will be multi-media and include live music from the Arab world.
Many of you were fortunate to hear a sample of Cameron Powers' and Kristina Sophia’s music at our December holiday party. Cameron is a scholar of the history of the Arab world who has devoted himself to building bridges of trust and understanding between that culture and ours, for the sake of peace. He will share some of the cultural history of the Middle East, going back to the 9th century. This history lives on in the souls of Middle Easterners today.
Our venue will be the St. Francis Event Center at 1030 St. Francis Way, Denver, CO 80204. This is just west of Speer Blvd. between Larimer and Champa streets on the Auraria campus. We will begin at 3:30 p.m. and finish at 5:30 p.m. The costs will be covered by your donation of $10.00 per person.
Event: Ambassadors’ Leadership Forum
Date: Sunday, January 20, 2008
Time: 3:30-5:30 pm
Place: St. Francis Center, 1030 St. Francis Way, Auraria Campus, Denver
We look forward to seeing you there. Please RSVP to 303-931-2034.
Please join SkyDancing Tantra, My Group.
January 20, there will be Journeys to Tantric Bliss day incorporating an Intro to SkyDancing Tantra and an indepth series of Chakra
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