After the news and tracks from the Local Waves Initiative library, tune in for a tour of the exhibition Ceremonial Healings of Bastet the Cat: On Halim El-Dabh’s Sonic World with curator Alma Chaouachi. This exhibition at the Hessel Museum of Art is part of Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, which collects curatorial projects organized by the Class of 2026 at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, in fulfillment of their M.A. in Curatorial Studies.

Ceremonial Healings of Bastet the Cat: On Halim El-Dabh’s Sonic World offers an entry to the life and work of Egyptian American composer, teacher, and ethnomusicologist Halim El-Dabh (1921–2017).

El-Dabh is often cited for early experiments with sound that predate musique concrète in Europe, particularly Taʿbīr al-Zaar (1944), developed from recordings of women-led Zaar healing ceremonies in Egypt. At the same time, his approach extended beyond electronic music and was shaped by African musical traditions, ritual, and storytelling, which he documented and pursued through ethnomusicological practice, informing both his music and his teaching.

This exhibition—the first in the United States to center El-Dabh’s work and to engage with his archive at the McCormick Library of Special Collections at Northwestern University—brings together key sonic pieces, field research, teaching materials, and diverse graphic scoring methods, presented to the audience as interdependent modes within his practice.

Initially trained in agricultural engineering—while practicing the piano from a young age— El-Dabh first experimented with sound through manipulating waves to protect crops from pests. These maneuvers led him to field recordings he then used in compositions, and introduced a sustained engagement with ritual. In 1950, El-Dabh received a Fulbright grant to study composition in the United States. He was then offered a residency at the Columbia–Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York, which lead to collaborations with artists such as Isamu Noguchi and Martha Graham—expanding his work with sound and developing a lasting interest in movement. 
From the early 1970s, he moved to Kent, Ohio, to teach music and ethnomusicology in the Pan-African Studies Department at Kent State University until the early 1990s. Alongside this, El-Dabh conducted field trips to Egypt and across Africa, where he convened regional music practices and wove them into ensembles, in alignment with his Pan-Africanist vision.

Named after the composer’s last written piece, Ceremonial Healings of Bastet the Cat approaches the archive as a live offering of Halim El-Dabh’s Africanist approach, rather than a fixed record of his practice. The exhibition invites visitors to linger and trace relations between materials, and mirror the composer’s own pedagogy.

The exhibition is supported by the Jenni Crain Foundation, an initiative dedicated to preserving the legacy of the esteemed artist and curator.

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