Welcome to my website! My life is mainly about music, and I express that as a performer, as an ethnomusicologist, and also as a documentary filmmaker. I have been playing cello since the age of nine, and I was a member of the Long Beach Symphony from 1980 to 2018, when I retired from that organization. I also have a chamber music group, the Ondine Ensemble, which is featured in this website. We play for weddings and other special occasions.

I received a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2002. My areas of specialization are the Near East and Africa. I am currently working with a group of Bedouins from the North Badia, Jordan, who are interested in preserving their heritage for future generations. We are now in the process of producing a documentary film about their performance traditions.

I am also interested in food, and I enjoy eating, cooking, and studying it as a cultural expression. I have published a set of recipes for a Syrian meal in The Ethnomusicologists’ Cookbook, named in the New York Times as one of twenty noteworthy cookbooks published in 2006: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/books/review/cookbook-extra.html?_r=0. For more information on the book, visit this link: https://www.routledge.com/products/9780415978194