This project will create continued opportunities for joint experiences of music-making, as we help new Americans become part of the Rhode Island community. From September 2020 to May 2021, Music for Refugees will build community through two music sharing events, culminating in a third more formal food and music gathering featuring Middle-Eastern food, music and musicians. Kareem Roustom will create a new 18-20 minute work for string orchestra, harvested from the collective memories of the newly resettled refugee community, developed through workshops and interactions throughout the year as participants contribute, stone-soup-style, to a musical mix (“this is a song that I learned in school”… “we used to dance this at weddings”). Repertoire will also include Roustom’s arrangements of Iraqi folk songs, and the third movement of his A Voice Exclaiming string quartet, Dabké, which draws from the rhythms of a traditional middle-eastern wedding dance.