The "Amateurs' Ensemble" — the head of the institute, Mr. Sami Salibi, appears at the left
He is an artist... this man of whom I am about to tell you now!... Sami Salibi... have you heard of him??... Have you seen him?... The papers have spoken of him on more than one occasion... "The Agricultural Fair at Abadiyeh"... "The Saliha–Shaker wedding celebration"... "Reviving the Lebanese artistic heritage"...
And on many other occasions... where people have been able to watch the "dabke" — that splendid Lebanese dance... to whose strains young women and young men of the refined, educated class of this country move with harmony, splendor, and mastery...
And people ask: How was it given to these young men and young women to learn the arts of the "dabke" and to master it with all this mastery?
Here I am, answering this question of theirs: Come with me, reader, to Ras Beirut, to the beginning of Sadat Street...
The echo of sweet, tender melodies will drift to your ears... rising from a building that stands at the corner of the street... A signboard will meet your eye, on which is written "The Ras Beirut Institute of Music and Drawing"... You will surely be drawn along with the melodies toward their source... and you enter... and the melodies rise and mingle... and bright, radiant faces meet you, coming and going, joyful and smiling... from their eyes shines a gleam of happiness and contentment... They are on their way to another world... a world all beauty... and splendor... and radiance!
And the artist Sami Salibi hastens to receive you himself...
You enter with him a hall in which paintings are spread about... oils and watercolors... with elegance and taste...
I said: Tell me about yourself... about your institute... about your projects... about your musical ensembles... about your artistic hopes and wishes... about your revival of the popular heritage...
And the artist spoke... He said:
— I shall take you back twenty-five years, to when I was receiving my schooling at the Brummana school...
The "Nay Ensemble," whose members include young and old — men and women