Middle Eastern Music and Dance Camp is an immersive cultural gathering held every summer in the redwood forests of Mendocino, California. Since 1991, the camp has brought together musicians, dancers, teachers, and cultural practitioners from around the world for a week of intensive learning, shared experience, and genuine human connection.
Set in a rustic, nature-based environment, the camp is intentionally designed as a retreat from everyday life. Days are structured yet fluid—classes flow into rehearsals, meals turn into conversations, and evenings open into concerts, dance shows, and spontaneous late-night gatherings. Over time, many participants return year after year, not only for the depth of instruction, but because the camp becomes a second home and its community a lifelong network of friends and collaborators.
What We Do
The camp is dedicated to preserving, teaching, and living Middle Eastern music, dance, and related cultural traditions in a respectful, experiential way. Instruction is grounded in lineage and context, while the atmosphere encourages curiosity, collaboration, and cross-disciplinary learning.
What You Will Experience
300+ hours of classes in Middle Eastern music, dance, rhythm, singing, and cultural studies
30+ internationally respected master teachers representing diverse regional traditions
Daily instruction from morning to evening, with options for all levels—from beginners to advanced practitioners
Live ensemble work and group sessions for those who want to play, sing, or dance together
Performances & Community Life
Multiple nights of live international concerts featuring teachers and guest artists
50+ dance performances, including the signature Cabaret Night
Late-night fire-circle jam sessions, drum gatherings, and informal dance parties
Shared meals with freshly prepared ethnic cuisine, enjoyed family-style
A vendor village offering instruments, costumes, crafts, and cultural art
A Community That Lasts
What sets the camp apart is its sense of trust and belonging. People arrive as individuals and leave as part of a community. Friendships formed here often continue for decades—across countries, disciplines, and generations. Musicians find dancers, students find mentors, and strangers become collaborators and lifelong friends.
Open & Inclusive
Open to all skill levels, backgrounds, and ages
Families and children are welcome
Volunteer and work-exchange opportunities available
Scholarships offered to support access and emerging artists
The Middle Eastern Music and Dance Camp is not a festival you attend once—it is a place you return to, a community you grow with, and a living cultural space where music and dance continue long after the week ends.
JOSHKUN TAMER
Founder | Established 1991
In 1991, Joshkun Tamer founded the Middle Eastern Music and Dance Camp in the redwood forests of Northern California with a clear and ambitious vision: to create a serious cultural institution dedicated to the preservation, study, and celebration of Middle Eastern music and dance.
At a time when authentic cultural immersion opportunities were limited in the United States, he established a structured yet intimate environment where master artists, scholars, musicians, and dancers could gather for intensive study and artistic exchange. His commitment to live music, rigorous instruction, and inter-generational transmission shaped the foundation of the camp’s identity.
More than an event, the camp became a living archive — a place where repertoire, technique, musical systems, and cultural memory could be transmitted directly from master to student. Over three decades later, the institution remains one of the longest-running immersive Middle Eastern cultural retreats in the country.
“Joshkun’s vision built this institution, and his character sustained it. We all hold deep love and respect for him — he is a rare human being: kind, brilliant, principled, and unwaveringly trustworthy. Everything we have today stands on the strength of who he is.”
— Gamze Guven
gAMZE GUVEN
Owner & Director | Leadership Since 2011
Gamze Guven has been involved with the camp since 2011 and now serves as its Owner and Director, stewarding both its operational structure and artistic direction. Her leadership continues the founding vision while advancing the camp’s institutional growth and international presence.
Under her direction, the camp has expanded its global faculty network, elevated production standards, strengthened its educational framework, and refined its organizational infrastructure — all while preserving its cultural integrity and forest-based immersive character.
Beyond operational leadership, Gamze has strategically positioned the camp for long-term continuity. She has modernized its systems, strengthened its financial and organizational foundations, and cultivated a new generation of participants who view the camp not only as a yearly gathering, but as a lifelong artistic home. Her stewardship ensures that the institution is structurally resilient, culturally relevant, and prepared to serve future generations with the same depth and authenticity upon which it was founded.
Through her leadership, the camp remains both a guardian of tradition and a forward-looking cultural institution — where music, dance, scholarship, and enduring human connection continue to evolve across generations.
“When you do things from your soul,
you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
-Rumi .
