SANAA, Yemen — There was a jam session in the music room of Basement Foundation, a brand new cultural center in Sanaa in early February 2013. The lights were lowered and three musicians improvised melodies on the classical Arabic Hijaz scale.
Khaled Haidar led on his keyboard and the guitarists joined in. Methal Hamadi, 22, occasionally put down her pink guitar to play the harmonica. She also plays the piano, the ukulele and the Melodicas she ordered on Amazon — much to the dismay of her mother, the breadwinner of the family, who wants to see her daughter have a career and make good money. So, much like many talented young Middle Easterners, Hamadi is studying medicine.