Projects under way

• Publication of scholarly editions of Zaki Nassifs extant contributions to the music of the Middle East that will include scores, song texts, recordings, and his writing and correspondence.

• Cataloguing the archival material at AUB according to international library standards.

• Transfer, documentation, and conservation of the aforementioned materials into electronic form.

• Establishment of a framework for the legal protection of the composers rights as transferred to the American University of Beirut. 

Actions being planned

Five years after Zakis passing, active plans are under way to revive degree-granting Programs in the department of FAAH. The scope of these Programs will be new in Lebanon and Middle East with a main objective of initiating new graduate Programs and activate Research in the field of Lebanese-Oriental Music. Within a period of two years starting from January 1 2009, a Graduate and Research Center in Musicology should emerge at AUB. For that purpose, recruitment of scholars and artists who will be able to teach courses, carry out research and put together Curricula and Research Programs intended to bring out new generations of Musicians and Musicologists versed in Excellence in creation and performance of Lebanese Oriental Music in particular and Middle Eastern Music in general.