A graduate student from the University of California - Santa Barbara has begun research at Academy of Arts’ Higher Institute of Arabic Music and at the Music Teachers College, Helwan University. She is Ms. Lillie S. Gordon. She will study “Negotiating Modernity: the Adoption and Adaptation of the Violin in Egyptian Music.” Ms. Gordon earned a B.A.degree in anthropology and music from the College of William and Mary in 2002 and in 2007 she received an M.A. in ethnomusicology from Santa Barbara. She has also studied Arabic at the American University in Cairo. Ms. Gordon is in Cairo under the auspices of the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Award Program. The Commission extends a warm welcome to her!