Hope you've had a chance to look at the front page of bhs70s.com. There we've outlined the upcoming changes you'll be seeing on the site come January 1, 2009. We think there are some good ones in there.
What about you? Do you have any suggestions? Any keen ideas you've seen elsewhere that you wish was on BHS70s? We'd love to hear them!
Look here for more notes on the update of BHS70s in the coming days and weeks.
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bhs70s site redesign 2009
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My sincerest condolences to Sarmad and family on the recent death of his father. You may contact him by emailing him through bhs70s, info07@bhs70s.com.
Here is an article about his dad, who was an extraordinary musician.
Sept 30, 2007
Solhi Al-Wadi, doyen of Syrian classical music, dies at 75
Solhi al-Wadi, the doyen of classical music in Syria, died early Sunday at al-Shami Hospital in Damascus, Syria's official News Agency reported. He was 75.
Solhi Al-Wadi was born in Damascus in 1935 the son of an Iraqi father and a Syrian mother.
After an early childhood spent in Damascus, he was sent to a boarding school in Alexandria then after graduation continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
On his return to Syria, al-Wadi established the Arab Institute of Music in 1961, becoming its director in 1962, a post he held until 2001.
Manal Ghabash, administrative director of the institute, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa: "We have lost an amazing artist, who had given music a lot ... It was really a big loss."
He had been bed-ridden the past five years after suffering a severe stroke on stage, she said.
Al-Wadi's list of accomplishments included his establishment of the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra, which performed its first opera in 1995 and which performs annual concerts in Damascus and has recently performed successful concerts in Lebanon and the United States.
He was appointed Dean of the Higher Institute of Music in 1990. He single-handedly supervised the nurturing of a whole generation of talented young musicians, including Ghazwan Zirkli, Riad Sukkar, Arfan Hanbali, his own daughter Hamsa Al-Wadi, and many other talented artists.
His combined role as an educator, director, conductor, and first- class mass-media communicator did not prevent him from continuously composing original music and re-orchestrating major traditional and folklore music suitable for presentation by a philharmonic orchestra.
Incidental music for films brought Al-Wadi fame all around the Arab world, but the finest examples of his music can be found in his compositions for chamber music.
His presentation of Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" in 1995 is considered a major event in Syria's cultural history.Al-Wadi was awarded the Syrian Order of Merit of the First Class for his services to the cultural and musical life of Syria.
He is survived by a British wife Cynthia, his son Sarmad and daughters Hamsa and Diala. He was to be buried Sunday afternoon in Damascus.
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post by debi
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I did not have the pleasure of knowing Aram myself so cannot say much except that I wish I had. In emails Payam glowed in love and admiration for his son. Here is an article about the kind of young man that Aram was and the love he brought to the world. May his light shine as a beacon for us all. -- Debi PROVIDENCE — Payam Adlparvar believed God watched over his son. Aram Adlparvar liked to travel, and in his time abroad, he’d seen his share of trouble. There was the time he was shot in South Africa. There was the stabbing in the same country. And then there was the incident when a man with a machete attacked him in Swaziland. But Aram always survived, injured maybe, but never seriously. “He went through all these things, but he got out of them OK,” Payam said. “I had this feeling in my heart that he would always be all right.” So when the police called Payam on Tuesday night at the home he shares with his wife in California, he wasn’t just shocked — he was full of disbelief. His son, a 21-year-old student taking summer courses at the University of Rhode Island, had been killed. Earlier that night, Aram was driving alone back to his residence in Kingston from URI’s Providence campus. At 7:10 p.m., his Subaru station wagon crashed into a tree about 15 feet off Slocum Road in Exeter. He died instantly. The state police said that Aram was traveling at a high speed at the time. The speed limit on that part of Slocum Road is 25 mph. Aram was not wearing a seat belt, they said. Aram was the second-eldest child of Payam Adlparvar, a biomechanical engineer, and his wife, Cindy, a fifth-grade teacher. Aram grew up in California, and after spending a year traveling around the world, he enrolled at the University of Hawaii. He was majoring in literature and had just finished his junior year. His parents arrived in Rhode Island on Thursday. They are strict Baha’is and, following the rules of their faith, they cannot bury Aram far from the place of his death. He will be buried today in Swan Point Cemetery, in Providence. They washed his body last night and wrapped it in a silk shroud in preparation for his burial. Yesterday, in a hotel lobby in Providence, Payam and family members talked about Aram’s life. They described him as a selfless person who lived up to his name, which in Persian means “serene.” “I like to think that he was such a good soul that God needed him,” said Payam, who is of Iranian descent. Aram decided to take a year off to travel after graduating from El Toro High School, in Lake Forest, Calif. His first stop was Swaziland, a tiny country surrounded by South Africa. He chose to go there in part because he was born in Zimbabwe, another country in Sub-Saharan Africa, where his parents, both American citizens, had been students for several years. He started teaching in a small village school, loving it so much that he stayed for eight months. It was during that time that he got into all those scrapes. Once, he and a friend strayed into a slum in Johannesburg, South Africa, where some men with guns stopped their car. Aram and his friend were being carjacked. After handing over the keys, it looked like they’d be fine, but then a rival gang came upon them. The gangs started shooting at each other. Aram and his friend got caught in the crossfire. His friend was struck in the ankle. Aram was hit in the chest, but the bullet must have ricocheted off something. It was a shallow wound, and Aram was able to dig out the small-caliber bullet. Back in Swaziland, he was waiting in a friend’s car one day when a man wielding a machete approached. He told him to get out. Aram shifted into drive, but as the car lurched forward, the man swung the machete striking Aram’s arm and the side of the car. “He felt bad because it wasn’t his car,” Payam said. On another occasion, two men tried to mug him, but Aram had no money in his wallet. He told the men that if they needed money for food, they could instead come to a Baha’i study circle that night to get something to eat. One man showed up. The other came to the next meeting. Both became regular participants. “These guys were robbing him, and he invites them to a study circle,” Payam said, shaking his head and smiling. During the rest of his travels, Aram stopped in Europe, Asia, Australia and the South Pacific. He decided to come to Rhode Island because he was dating a woman who is a student at URI. They had met last year while she was taking classes at the University of Hawaii. He signed up for two literature courses at URI and was returning to Hawaii at the end of the summer. He wanted to become a literature professor. On Monday, for no particular reason, Aram had a conversation with his mother about death. She told him that when she died, she wanted him and the other members of their family to celebrate her life. She said she didn’t want everyone to be sad. He told her that he wanted the same. But, said Payam, his wife asked Aram to promise that he wouldn’t die anytime soon. He made the promise. The next night, the police called with the tragic news. “This,” said Payam, “is the first time my son was disobedient.” “I like to think that he was such a good soul that God needed him.”
Payam Adlparvar holds a computer that shows a photo of his son Aram, who was a summer student at URI, on the screen. -- The Providence Journal, photo by Glenn Osmundson1:00 AM EDT on Saturday, July 14, 2007 By Alex Kuffner, Journal Staff Writer
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know your alumni,
post by debi
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Earlier this month we received a sweet memory of Scandar from Naseem Quraishi. We've now added that to the Ya Scandar! page. Anyone else with memories they'd like to add?
Or how about another picture of Scandar, or inside Scand's? Any of those out there?
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good old days,
post by debi
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Frances (Hudson) Nehme-Pearson has been scanning her little heart out. She recently has been going through hundreds of old slides from her family's BHS days, buying a scanner specifically to preserve and share them. It's been a real joy to see them and soon we'll be adding them to a new photo album in the Scrapbook.
Among the pictures sent in, Frances sent a beautiful picture of Leila Sawaya (now Obeid) and wondered how Leila was now. Sarmad replied that she is rather famous in Lebanon as a beauty consultant. I did a little googling and found a reference to her book, Mamlakat Al Jamal. So, for fun, and especially for Frances, here's a couple of images she might enjoy found from this link (where the images can be viewed larger).
Congratulations and best success to Leila!
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know your alumni,
post by debi
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Anyone know who the pretty violinist is?
The view from Scands?
Do you really need a caption for this?
Now the second largest football pitch at BHS!
The famous, luxurious, 7 star Hotel Kanaan... and shop!
Having trouble with this? How about the entrance to the drive to the Primary School. Beirut in the background
View down to the Sick Bay and Rizkallah House, Dbayeh in the background
View up to the Library Block, MTB and the Science Block
The bottom of the drive to the Primary School
Anyone remember Yousef, the gardener, he must be over 80, with a guard
Yousef again. If you have any T-Shirts to spare he will gladly take them.
La Gargote, where Jean, the same head waiter from the 70's still works, and the same scratched vinyl record of Charles Aznavour from the 70's is played
The road leading to Roumieh part of Anwar Aswad's Ferrari wanabe can be seen at bottom left
The football pitch and Rizkallah House before it was refurbished
Little House, still being used for boarders
Somebody's house in Roumieh
Spectacular view of Beirut
A sample of Joe's artistic photography
Help Joe... who this is?
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around broummana,
post by sarmad
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around broummana,
post by sarmad,
Video
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