The Sounding Room: Zekkereya El-magharbel

Zekkereya El-magharbel is an educator, composer, and designer based in Detroit. He is a member of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, an Afro-futurist legacy ensemble that has been active for over 50 years. He earned his MFA in 2D Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art (2024) and his MMusic in Jazz and Contemporary Music from the University of Michigan (2021). He is a passionate educator and loves to make work that shows how, even though the world is so big, music and art can show us a common ground. His research is focused on melodic systems in regions of strong Islamic influence, studying traditional melodies to see how they work, then reconfiguring them to reflect the turbulence of finding beauty in the West.