BIOS

Melissa (Clarinet)

Melissa Murphey has been an avid clarinet player for 16 years. Her fascination with Classic Bellydance music began in late 2001 after taking some bellydance lessons. Since then she has studied Middle Eastern and Mediterranean music exclusively. In April of 2006, Melissa formed the Classic Bellydance Band, Ishtar. 

Melissa is the organizer for Jalsah Pittsburgh, a participatory Middle Eastern live music and dance community event. The Jalsah brings together like-minded individuals who wish to dance to, drum, and/or play Middle Eastern music together in a casual setting.

Melissa also teaches classes on Understanding Basic Middle Eastern Rhythms for the Non-Drummer and classes on Middle Eastern Music Ensemble where she covers makams (scales), taksims (solos), folk songs, basic rhythms and how it all fits together.

Her influences include: George Staphros, Mustafa Kandirali, Gus Vali, Barbaros Erkose, Ferdi Nadaz, Soren Baronian, Husnu Senlendirici, and Selim Sesler.

Read an interview with Melissa in Pittsburgh’s Tribune Review!

 Contact Melissa at melissa@ishtar-music.com!

Jeff (Electric Bass Guitar)

Roughly twenty years ago Jeff discovered the bass guitar when the electronic keyboard he owned malfunctioned, playing the “rumba“ rhythm until its eventual death. Upgrading to a more “rock band” instrument he proceeded to play in many horrible and now forgotten local “rock bands” (except UV! Not horrible- just forgotten! ). Music lessons, school jazz band, college and a few better bands followed. In 2006 Jeff formed Ishtar with Melissa, Mark and Beth and started a new life learning the music of the Middle East!

Jeff’s favorite things include the music of Miles Davis, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Igor Stravinsky, Richard Strauss, Bartok, Rimsky-Korsakov, John Coltrane, Pigface, Soul Coughing, Elliot Smith, The Cure, The The, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, David Byrne, Clutch, The Clash, Ministry, The Beastie Boys, The Goats, The Roots, PIL, Modest Mouse, Curtis Mayfield and Meat Beat Manifesto. Also really likes Indian Food!

Recently, the music of Anouar Brahem, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, George Abdo, Barbaros Erkose, Baris Manco, Erkin Koray, Gothart and Hossam Ramzy has become massively influential and instant favorites! Also--did we mention Indian Food?

Goals include expanding the Jalsah network of artists, dancers and musicians, fostering musical collaboration and learning much more music!

Contact Jeff at at jeff@ishtar-music.com!

Mark (Darbuka)

Mark brings with him over twenty years of percussion experience. He has been playing drums since the seventh grade, where he started his career on the bass drum and tri-toms for the North Hills Buccaneers Drum and Baton Corp, under the direction of Jan Fung. Mark’s experience also includes instructing.

Mark has played a variety of styles of music with a number of bands such as White Lightning, Invision, Bob Meliodon and the Chiropractors, Fair Warning and Surefire. Mark was also the original drummer for the band Defiant, with whom he recorded the CD “Hear the Laugh”.

When Mark met his wife, Beth (fellow Ishtar percussionist), she introduced him to her passion for Middle Eastern music. It wasn’t long until Mark developed an interest also, and he soon became excited about learning the darbuka. He immediately began studying---on his own, from DVD’s, and through some lessons with Carmine Guida, Armondo Malfufo and Raquy Danziger . Three years and several darbukas later, Mark is thrilled to have the chance to learn and play the music he loves with his friends!

Contact Mark at mark@ishtar-music.com!

Beth (Riqq, Auxiliary Percussion)

Beth began studying music in grade and high school, where she learned to play the flute and piccolo. Her musical repertoire to that point, however, had been restricted to classical, modern pop and show tunes. Although she enjoyed playing the instruments, she had no real passion for the music and no venue to play in. As a result, the instruments eventually were put away “for safe keeping”...and gathering dust.

It wasn’t until the late 90’s that Beth found her musical “true love”--Middle Eastern music. That was the year she discovered her passion for bellydance. Her inspirational teachers from Zafira Dance Company exposed her to a variety of styles, and with every new song she knew she wanted to learn more and more about the music--not just dance to it. After a few lessons from her husband Mark (Ishtar’s darbuka player), she realized that playing along took the joy of the music to a whole new level.

It wasn’t until an SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) event called Pennsic, however, that she decided to pick up the Arabic tambourine for the first time. She took the little bit of her vacation savings she had left to buy a modest riqq, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Beth and Mark had the good fortune of meeting Melissa and Jeff through a mutual friend. After a few collaborations and jam sessions, Ishtar was born.

In her “other” life outside of Ishtar, Beth is a computer security analyst. She enjoys spending time with Mark and her pets (a dog, two cats and two horses), bellydance, horseback riding, reading, computers, maintaining the Ishtar web site and learning to speak Arabic.

Beth is thrilled to have the opportunity to learn and play with such wonderful and talented people!

Contact Beth at beth@ishtar-music.com!

Rob (Fender Stratocaster Guitar)

Rob Metil is from the East End of Pittsburgh. He studied classical piano and played in recitals as a kid in between getting an earful of polkas and gypsy music while visiting his east European relatives on weekends. He started playing guitar and other strings sometime between junior high and high school. He’s a doctor (but not the kind that helps people!) of ethnomusicology, and did dissertation fieldwork in the Carpathian Mountains of Slovakia. Rob founded the eclectic Scottish band Molly in the Crowd with John Meikle, founded and hosts an Irish session at Murphy's Tap Room in Regent Square, and performs in the first mandolin section of The Pittsburgh Mandolin Orchestra. Rob’s been recognized as a Master of the Folk and Traditional Performing Arts by the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts, and, outside of his performances with Ishtar, he’s performed on WRCT and WYEP radio, and in venues as diverse as the University of Pittsburgh, Kent State University, the Guthrie Arts Guild in Erie, Pennsylvania, The DownUnder Coffeehouse, The Bloomfield Bridge Tavern, The Thunderbird Cafe, Kiva Han, Quiet Storm and Howler’s Coyote Cafe. In addition, he’s performed with the University of Pittsburgh’s African Drumming Ensemble and as a guest with The Intuitive Research Project and the Congolese band Jambo. Rob's also a specialist in acoustic blues and bottleneck guitar styles of the Deep South, and guitar noire/American Primitive in the style of John Fahey.

Some of Rob’s influences and current favorites include Franz Schubert, Gogol Bordello, Charlie Patton, Rasputina, Hot Tuna, R. Crumb and the Cheap Suit Serenaders, The Legion of the Incredibly Strange Superheroes, Planxty, The Battlefield Band, Steeleye Span, Dolores Keane and John Faulkner, Dick Dale, Link Wray, Bo Diddley, Tommy James, Los Straitjackets, Man Or Astro Man, The Markettes, The Great American Gypsies, Hossam Ramzy, Devil’s Anvil, Mogollar, Goth Art, Golem, Balkan Beat Box and Uszturu.

Rob teaches music and cultural studies at Chatham University, a small women’s school, and his courses include World Music, From Blues to Rock, and the self-designed Music of Ethnic Pittsburgh, and From Pirates to Punks: Music of the Outcast in Britain and America. He’s currently designing a course called Love and Horror: Music and Gothic Subculture. 

When he’s not busy with music, Rob amuses himself and others carving pumpkins and practicing his Polish and Russian.

Contact Rob at rob@ishtar-music.com!