Throughout the year, in a wide variety of venues, Zuleikha joins together with world musicians and poets to make magic. These performances create a glow of humor, depth and virtuosity. Performance in collaboration is another way of creating community. Crossing the borders of many cultures, Zuleikha has worked with such great world musicians as the late African drum master Baba Olatungi, jazz guitarist Bruce Dunlap, cellist David Darling, vocalist/instrumentalist Jai Uttal, world percussionist Glen Velez, composer/cellist Eugene Friesen, avant-garde composer/pianist Terry Riley, fusionary musician Kitaro, pianist Aaron Stern, master oud musician Rahim Alhaj, Coleman Barks, poet and translator of Rumi, and many others.
“With mystic twang, falsetto fits, djembe drum and an everlasting whirl, Barks, Darling, Ryan and Zuleikha are eclecticists uncovering the prayers of the spinning ‘Shakespeare’ in New York’s great ecumenical space.” — Mark Breslav, Commentary on St. John The Divine Concert
EMERGENCE CONCERT (above photo) with Aaron Stern and Zuleikha
“Rehearsing with Aaron has been both an artistic conversation and the art of listening. Listening in the space, inside of myself, listening into movement, and inside of the music. Aaron and I seem to be doing this simultaneously, and this brings the experience into a new kind of duet. We bring the training of our different art forms and love of music into this kind of open conversation which brings feeling, listening, and being into a form in motion and sound. The surprise of the moment revealing itself brings a deep delight…art becoming.” — Zuleikha, 2006
