Dawn Elder

Dawn Elder (San Francisco, California) is an American composer, pianist, impresario, music producer, and promoter best known for her efforts to fuse Middle Eastern music with contemporary rock and pop music. In the 1980s she began working as an impresario and promoter, music producer, record executive and or representative for diverse artists. She spent several years as the vice president of Ark 21/ Mondo Melodia starting in 1999, and she has helped produce albums with Sting, Cheb Mami, Simon Shaheen Qantara, and Cheb Khaled. After her work at Ark 21, Elder founded Dawn Elder World Media & Entertainment Enterprises, an entertainment firm based in California.

Elder has developed and directed specials by networks such as ABC, NBC, PBS, MTV, and NPR. She founded the annual International Friendship Festival in California, Peace Through Music, Team Up America, and several other cultural festivals and conferences in the United States. In 2012 Elder co-founded the label World Harmony Studios and DE Music in Santa Barbara. That year Elder brought together Voices of Afghanistan, an Afghan ensemble featuring vocalist Ustad Farida Mahwash, rubab master Homayoun Sakhi, and The Sakhi Ensemble, Angelique Kidjo, and other notable artists, and helped compose several tracks on the group's debut album.

She was the international talent advisor to the MasterPeace concert in 2014, also co-writing the Arabic adaptation of the Bob Seger song " Turn the Page," which was performed at the Concert of Colors. Among other events, in 2014 and 2015 she created the concept for and "masterminded" the When Music Matters concert as the finale of the larger Abu Dhabi Festival. A periodic public speaker, she continues to manage and teach at the Ultimate Music and Vocal Summit, a children's vocal and music educational program she founded in 2015.

Early life, education

Dawn Elder was born and raised in San Francisco, California. She is of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean ancestry; her mother is from Lebanon, while her father is of Palestinian descent. Elder was named after the Lebanese diva Sabah, whose first name means "early morning" in Arabic. Elder listened to rock and roll, and studied classical piano. Elder attended the University of California, Berkeley in the early 1980s, pursuing a double degree in biochemistry and music. She took a hiatus to direct and produce a series of festivals, artists, and events in Santa Barbara, California promoting world, Latin and rock artists. She later graduated from the University of California with a degree in Music Education.

Career

Early management, festivals (1990–1995)

In 1990 Elder began representing American actor Woody Harrelson. A year later she helped direct and produce the ''Halloween ABC Special – Woody Harrelson'' on ABC, one of her first television jobs. Also in 1990 she began working with Mike Love from The Beach Boys, and two years later she started managing his son Christian Love and his musical group Alex's Cane. She also worked for Arlo Guthrie on a two-year project. In 1991 she started developing and co-organizing the first bi-annual conference T.E.A.M EXPO, which drew 100,000 participants. With the name standing for 'Teaching. Entertainment. Arts. Music.,' she worked with the T.E.A.M. organization until 2000.

Elder produced the first P.A.T.H.E.S. Festival, which was sponsored by the Preservation of Artistic Traditional Heritage Entertainment Society, in May 1995. According to the ''Los Angeles Times'' about the events, "when Latin rock took off as a popular strain in California music, lderpioneered a Spanish dance festival and concert events to celebrate the Latino history of the Central Coast." Also in 1995, Elder coordinated the Project Teach Tomorrow's Teachers scholarship program, working with Mike Love on fundraising concerts. In 1995 she also became artistic manager and representative for bands such as George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic. By the end of 1995 she had produced hundreds of concerts and festivals, including programming the entertainment for the US Latin world festival Old Spanish Days.

International Friendship Festival (1996)

Elder is the founder of the International Friendship Festival in California. The origin of the project was in late 1996, when songwriter Michael Sembello asked Elder for help planning a Santa Maria video shoot for his song "One Planet One People." The project expanded, and the ''Los Angeles Times'' states "What became known as the International Friendship Festival aspired to bring to one California venue as many ethnicities and bands as possible." Also in the mid-1990s, Elder was introduced to Arab composer musician Simon Shaheen and such groups as the Kan Zaman Community Ensemble in Arcadia, an "all-volunteer Arabic orchestra" who create symphonic sounds based on ancient musical traditions. She also learned that her namesake Sabah was visiting Los Angeles. When Elder mentioned she was "trying to introduce Arabic music to a massive L.A. audience," Sabah offered to perform for free. For the first event, the ''LA Times'' stated "Sabah assembled an all-Arab American orchestra to back her up, performed to a packed Southern California crowd and added her voice, along with the Kan Zaman players, to a live rendition of Sembello's song about global oneness. The moving event was a turning point in Elder's career, and a milestone for L.A.'s Arab American community." She continues to organize the events.

Televised programs and Ark 21 (1997–2003)

She helped on the ''One Planet One People'' global broadcast and PBS special from 1997 to 1998, and also in 1998 she worked on the first Arab-American Music, Arts, and Literature (AMAL) Awards, with over 50,000 attendees at the live broadcast and events in Washington D.C. Also in the 1990s she started producing and managing artists such as Sabah, Wadi al-Safi, Michael Sembello, The Bridge, Simon Shaheen, Mohammed Wardi, George Clinton and the P-Funk, Cheb Khaled, Cheb Mami, and certain projects for Stevie Wonder. Elder helped arrange and co-produce the 1998 album '' Mohammed Wardi with the African Birds'' by Sudanese singer-songwriter Mohammed Wardi, which won a National Award of Excellence. The following year she produced a second album by Wardi, titled ''Longing for Home''. In 1999, she created and produced the Debka for Peace event in Los Angeles, which focused on the Arab folk dance debka. Featuring the Adam Basma Dance Company, the televised version won a Tele Award.

In 1999, Ark 21/Mondo Melodia CEO Miles Copeland hired Elder as the label's vice-president, and she brought a number of her artists to the label. The following year she began producing a large number of albums on Ark 21, starting with ''Historic Live Recording of Arabic Masters'' by Two Tenors & Qantara (Wadi al-Safi and Sabah), ''The Lion Roars Live'' (Hakim), and ''Blue Flame'' (Simon Shaheen & Qantara). She recorded, arranged, and produced the albums, also serving as executive producer and directing the live TV broadcast for ''Historic Live Recording of Arabic Masters''. That year she also was the executive producer on an album by Kazem Al Saher. She also continued to work on non-Ark 21 albums. Among other projects, in 2000 she stated managing a US concert project for Lebanese singer Fairuz, as well as cultural projects for Sting.

Production and songwriting (2001–2004)

In 2001 her Ark 21 productions included an album by Hakim, ''The Lion Roars''. Other Ark 21 albums she produced in 2001 included ''Nomad: Best of Amina'' by Amina Annabi, ''Blue Flame'' by Simon Shaheen and Qantara, and ''Dellali'' by Cheb Mami, which peaked at #7 on Top World Music Albums chart. Also in 2001 she was executive producer on the compilation ''Desert Roses and Arabian Rhythms, Vol. 1,'' and '' Desert Roses and Arabian Rhythms, Vol. 2'' in 2002 as well. According to ''The Boston Phoenix'' in 2001, "this past summer, two savvy world-music labels, Putumayo and Six Degrees, released Arabic-music samplers. But most of the credit for the Arabic-music boom has to go to the California-based Ark 21 imprint Mondo Melodia."

In 2001 she also developed and produced the first United States tour and release for ''Raoui'' by Algerian musician Souad Massi. Also that year, she was traveling in the United States with eighteen musicians, about to embark on a ten-city US tour with Khaled and Hakim, when the tour was cancelled because of 9/11. She stated the celebratory nature of the tour would have been inappropriate, and travel had become unsafe. The tour was successfully rescheduled for February 2002. Also in 2002 she started managing special projects for Quincy Jones, assisting him in coordinating the inclusion of Middle Eastern artists into the World Economic Forum. She worked with Quincy Jones again in 2004 to coordinate including world artists into We Are the Future, a program of performances in Rome including artists such as Khaled of Algeria, Kadim Al Sahir of Iraq, Simon Shaheen of Palestine, and Riffat Sultana of Pakistan. It was broadcast live on several international networks, including MTV. Elder also co-wrote with Rod Temperton the lyrics to a composition by Simon Shaheen ("Everyone Everywhere") originally written as an instrumental piece for the United Nations.

In 2003, she co-wrote the song "Love and Compassion," which featured Kazem Al Sahir performing his first English and Arabic song with Paula Cole and Karina Pasian. She co-produced the song with KC Porter. The track was featured on the CD ''Love and Compassion'' by the National Arab American Museum, which Elder compiled. She also co-produced “We Want Peace,” featuring Lenny Kravitz, Kazem Al Sahir, Simon Shaheen and Jamey Haddad. Originally, the Redondo Beach-based youth organization Rock The Vote released the track in February 2003. It was re-released in 2006, and Elder produced for the ''Rock the Vote and the Olympics'' CD it was included on.

"Love to the People" and events (2005–2011)

In 2004 she co-produced the album '' Ya-Rayi'' by Cheb Khaled, and that year she also started working with Def Jam recording artist Karina Pasian, DJ Cheb i Sabbah