My Story

During his youth,  Jamie had been modeled to have a profession over anything else and told that security and having a family were the foundations for a good life.  He followed in his father and grandfathers footsteps and studied accounting. From his first accounting job, he realized this is not for him and started becoming depressed. As time grew on, his depression subsided with the help of many personal growth workshops, but with a career he had no passion for, he was losing his spark for life.  Even his passion for listening to music started to fade.  Then in his mid 30’s, he was exposed to the hand drum at a gathering of a friend. He remembers losing himself in the group rhythm and energy. Eventually this led to purchasing a hand drum when he was 38. He chose a Doumbek (Middle Eastern Drum) since he had some exposure to it through his wife who had been a belly-dance instructor in her early life. He took his first drum lesson at a belly-dance festival a month later.  In that class, he was able to catch on and thus started his passion for the drum.  He soon found a master teacher – Souhail Kaspar and started developing good technique and learning many of the rhythms and percussion instruments of the Middle East. For the first time in his adult life, he felt he was good at something and had some real promise. Still an accountant, he remembers bringing his Doumbek onto planes as he was consulting companies in other cities on accounting software. He would play anywhere he could…at parks in the winter; between big rigs parked outside the hotel for the night; in client’s offices when everyone went home and in rental cars.

Soon he was playing with other multi-ethnic students he met at UCLA Near East Ensemble led by Dr. Jihad Racy. Who else not expects to get the tadalafil 20mg for sale charm of intimate moments but foods that rich in carbohydrates decrease this blood supply. A http://nichestlouis.com/viagra-5961.html buy cheap levitra 2015 study showed pomegranate juice could aid in prostate cancer prevention. Key ingredients in Saffron cialis get viagra M Power capsules are the best herbal anti-impotence remedies. For that a person should consult a good buy viagra without rx doctor for it so that they will guide you properly and hence no health issues would be created in your life due to this. Here he discovered the beauty and depth of the music of Arabic countries. At the same time, his wife Melanie started teaching Belly-Dance again and they began to collaborate. He was then introduced to an Israeli composer and Oud (Middle Eastern Lute) player – Yuval Ron at a party his wife threw to promote her dance school. Unbeknown to him, this was the meeting that started his music career. 1 ½ years later, he met Yuval again at a Middle Eastern Music & Dance camp in Mendocino, CA and they started playing together. Yuval was asked to do a performance for Peace in the Middle East and invited Jamie to join him. This was going to be the first time Yuval would perform the Oud in a concert and the first time in 15 years Yuval would perform live.  The concert was successful and was the first time Jamie would get paid for a performance. With Yuval’s experience and connections in the music world and his passion for Middle Eastern music, he attracted some very experienced Arabic and Armenian musicians to join him, and in 2001, he formed the Yuval Ron Ensemble.  On Jamie’s 40th birthday, he was sharing with a friend that one day, he was going to make music his career and drop accounting for good. Jamie got to a point in his life where he was unwilling to have a career he had no passion for andI was ready to go for it no matter what. About 5 years later, that day eventually came when he asked for his wife’s blessing.  Over the next 13 years, he fought and worked harder than ever before in his life, overcoming many financial, health and emotional obstacles. Through it all, he created a music career where he has played in over 20 groups with fine musicians from all over the world, recorded on over 200Normandbetty2 tracks and has performed in Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Spain, Poland, South Korea, Mexico, Turkey, Alaska, Cuba, India, Armenia and across the US. Most importantly, he has touched thousands of people with the message that no matter what we have been taught to believe, music expresses the commonality of the human spirit and thus develops our compassion for one another. Although the music business is up and down with no security,  he has transformed his life from one with no sense of purpose,  who’s light was very dim,  to one filled with passion for life and love for humanity.