Choral Conducting
Bringing performance practice into dialogue with scholarship, giving living voice to chant and song traditions that have been carried across generations.
Choral Conductor · Scholar · Ethnomusicologist
Eve Georges Sada
Preserving the sacred and secular musical traditions of Assyrian communities, from ancient Mesopotamia to the diaspora today.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
Harvard University
About
Music as collective memory
Documenting how ritual, chant, and song carry cultural identity across centuries.
Eve Georges Sada is a choral conductor and scholar whose work centers on the musical and cultural traditions of Assyrian communities. Combining archival research, ethnographic fieldwork, and performance practice, she documents sacred and secular traditions in the Assyrian ancestral homeland of Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) and within diaspora communities.
Her expertise in Semitic languages enables close engagement with historical liturgical manuscripts, oral traditions, and textual sources. Her award-winning dissertation examines the diverse chant genres of the Church of the East, one of the oldest surviving traditions of Eastern Christianity, tracing their development from the first centuries of Christianity to the present.
After receiving her doctorate from the University of Oklahoma, she served as a postdoctoral fellow in the Spirituality and the Arts research initiative at the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School (2023–26).
- CurrentPostdoctoral Fellow, Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, Harvard University (2026–27)
- PreviouslyPostdoctoral Fellow, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School (2023–26)
- EducationDoctorate, University of Oklahoma
Creative Work
On the podium and the stage
Gilgamesh — A New Opera
Contributed to the historical, musical, and cultural development of the new opera production. Previewed at the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East (Mesopotamia Gallery) in November 2025; premiered in Los Angeles in March 2026.
Dramaturgy & Performance
Working at the intersection of ethnomusicology, dramaturgy, and performance studies to bring Mesopotamian cultural history to contemporary audiences.
Research
Sound, ritual & heritage
Eve’s research focuses on documenting and preserving Assyrian music, dance, and cultural expressions, highlighting their vital role in sustaining collective memory, cultural identity, and heritage.
In Commemoration as Culture: Dukhrana and Shahra Rituals in Assyrian Tradition, she explores the continuity between ancient Mesopotamian ritual practices and living Assyrian traditions.
Forthcoming Monograph
The Chant Traditions of the Hudra (Khudra)
Drawing on Syriac liturgical manuscripts, historical texts, oral traditions, and musical analysis to examine the development and transmission of Church of the East chant.
- Ethnomusicology
- Church of the East Chant
- Syriac Liturgical Manuscripts
- Semitic Languages
- Ritual & Performance Studies
- Mesopotamian Cultural History
- Assyrian Music & Dance
Projects
Current & recent work
Chant of the Hudra
A book-length study of the chant traditions preserved in the Hudra, tracing their transmission through manuscript and oral tradition.
Gilgamesh
Historical, musical, and cultural consultation for a new opera based on the Mesopotamian epic, premiered in Los Angeles in 2026.
The Villages of Nahla Valley
Ethnographic documentation of the cultural rhythms, music, and dance of Assyrian village communities in the Nahla Valley.
Dukhrana & Shahra
Examining commemorative rituals as bridges between ancient Mesopotamian practice and living Assyrian tradition.
Media
Writing & features
Harvard CSWR · 2026
Harvard CSWR · 2025
Harvard CSWR · 2024
Harvard CSWR · 2024
Harvard NELC
The New Gilgamesh Opera: Musical and Cultural Insights
On bringing the world’s oldest epic to the operatic stage.
Commemoration as Culture: Dukhrana and Shahra Rituals in Assyrian Tradition
A research reflection on ritual, memory, and continuity.
Cultural Rhythms of the Assyrian Villages of Nahla Valley
Music and dance from Assyrian village life.
Sacred Sounds: Assyrian Chant Legacy
The enduring legacy of Church of the East chant.
Faculty Profile
Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations.
Contact
Get in touch
For research inquiries, speaking engagements, choral collaborations, or media requests.
esada@fas.harvard.edu
Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
Harvard University · 6 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
Harvard University · 6 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138