About

Cameron Powers has been studying and performing Arabic music since 1980.

The oud, his instrument, is a fretless lute which facilitates the production of microtonally intonated notes. With experience it becomes possible to utilize deep listening skills and perceive subtle variations in pitch and harmony.

As skill in deep listening progresses and performance skills also improve, one reaches a point of profound appreciation for the vast variety of modes or scales called “maqamat” which have been preserved in the indigenous Middle East.

Cameron’s numerous trips through Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon have enabled him to integrate his own identity with maqam music. It is this sense of having found the treasure of perfect harmony which drove Cameron to want to share. This, his second book about Arabic music, is the result.

Cameron regularly performs in restaurants and other venues in the Arab world where the local citizens have encouraged him to return again and again.

He has performed for 60,000 Egyptians in the Cairo stadium as part of a day-long fundraiser for a children’s cancer hospital. He was the only non-Arab performer to be invited and sang on the same stage with Amr Diab and many others.

Cameron also sang Iraqi music on the streets of Baghdad in solidarity with Iraqi people in 2003.

He believes that there is much ancient wisdom related to perfect harmony which can not only help Westerners achieve more balanced and spiritually harmonious lifestyles but also lay a foundation for a future world peace.

The popular travel guide, Lonely Planet Guide to the Middle East devotes a page to descriptions of his musical peace work and 501c3 non-profit organization, Musical Missions of Peace.