Joseph Alpar and his ensemble will perform a diverse and exciting program of music exploring the long, intertwined histories of Jews, Muslims, and Christians in the Ottoman Empire from the 14th through 20th centuries. The central theme of the concert is love - in all forms. Poignant songs of unrequited desire, lyrical wedding ballads about marital loyalty, bawdy tunes delighting in infidelity, driving Sufi and Jewish mystical songs about Divine and earthly beloveds, and musical vignettes of everyday courtship, relationships, and separation.