Dr. David Marcus will deliver a lecture on Arabic Music  to Arabic students at UT Austin. By teaching the singing of popular Arabic songs and playing the oud, Dr. Marcus will also cover basic maqam theory and Arabic iqaa'aat (scales and rhythms), as well as instruments of Arabic music and major artists of the Arab world such as Umm Kalthoum.

His study of traditional Arabic music began as a Fulbright Scholar in Cairo, where Marcus taught jazz to Egyptian students, while examining the teaching of taqasim, the art of Arabic musical improvisation. His oud teachers include Dr. Hussein Saabir, Cherbel Rouhana, William Shaheen, and Simone Shaheen, at the latter’s renowned Arabic Music Retreat. In recent years, Marcus has directed his Marcus East West Ensemble in 10 concerts of Arabic music, at GCSU Milledgeville, Georgia Perimeter College, the Atlanta Arab Festival, the Alif Institute, and Georgia State University, where he created and directed the concert and lecture series, Baghdad in Exile, with Grammy-nominated oud virtuoso Rahim Al-Haj.