MEGUMI & Friends
7pm Wednesday, August 13th 2025
Barbes - 376 9th St, Brooklyn, NY 11215
$20 cover

MEGUMI & Friends premieres Grenades on the Dance Floor, a new suite of compositions by violinist and composer MEGUMI,
commissioned by the American Composers Forum. Each piece is a vessel for the stories of women from Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Japan -- voices once silenced, forgotten, or buried beneath wars and distorted experience, yet leaving footsteps in our bones. Forged in silence and remembrance, these compositions trace what history could not hold --what sank beneath the noise, but never disappeared. Infused with elements of jazz, Arabic maqam, and Japanese lyricism, the compositions are shaped by asymmetrical rhythmsthat mirror the tension between erasure and endurance.

MEGUMI, violin & compositions
Brian Prunka, oud
Zach Lapidus, piano
Moto Fukuashima, bass
Jeremy Smith, drums

MEGUMI is a violinist and composer from Japan. Having performed around the globe—from Carnegie Hall to refugee camps in the Middle East—she lives her credo: “the earth is her home, the sky is her blanket,” with three bases in Japan, New York, and Cairo. Her musical voice reflects diverse influences—Japanese folk, jazz, gospel, tango, and Arabic music—deepened by her time with legendary Egyptian maestro Abdo Daghar, who taught her the importance of innocent play. She is active as a soloist with orchestras and ensembles in Cairo, including performances at the Cairo Opera House. In Lebanon, she partnered with NGO URDA to hold a singing workshop for Syrian refugees and composed “Refugees” in their honor. Megumi continually keeps crossing borders—literally and musically—in her dedication to finding unity among diversity.

Brooklyn Arts Fund is sponsored, in part, by NYC Dept of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council