John Baboukis, the distinguished Greek-American musician, composer, conductor, educator, and mentor, passed away on 23 November in Jersey City, leaving behind a profound legacy that has touched hearts in many countries. The news of his passing was shared by his daughter, Hilary, on social media, who wrote, “I am so sorry to share that my dad, Dr. John Baboukis, passed away very unexpectedly…”

For many Egyptian artists and audiences who crossed paths with Baboukis, the sudden loss of the maestro came as a stark reminder of how easily we take for granted those who have always been there. In our minds, they are constants – timeless, unchanging – and so the inevitable moment that reminds us they are not eternal is always a rude shock. Having made Cairo his home in the past two decades (before retiring to Jersey City, last summer), Baboukis was one of those rare individuals who, despite the passage of time, seemed woven into the very fabric of Egyptian music and the vibrant pulse of life in Cairo. His absence will undoubtedly feel like a permanent note removed from the city’s musical texture, but we are left with the memories he created, celebrating the indelible footprints he made.

Born on 13 February 1955, Baboukis’s early life was shaped by an intense curiosity about music, especially its historical and cultural intersections. The son of Greek immigrants to the America, he earned his master’s degree in choral and orchestral conducting at Stony Brook University, and his PhD from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where he made history as the first doctoral student allowed to submit an original composition – Requiem Mass for choir, orchestra, and soloists – as a dissertation in choral conducting. While in Indiana, Baboukis studied Byzantine chant and was a psalti at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Indianapolis, an experience that fed his lifelong love of Byzantine music. He continued to compose, creating a large body of work for chamber ensembles, vocal music, and compositions for piano, harpsichord, clavichord, and organ.

He was also a skilled conductor, a passionate educator, and an advocate for the study and performance of early music, including the medieval and Renaissance vocal repertory. His professional journey led him to universities across the United States and Canada, where he specialized in conducting choral ensembles; he founded the Saint Paul Early Music Ensemble and Les Voix Médiévales de Montréal at McGill University in Montreal. He taught conducting and directed numerous choral and early music groups at the College of Saint Catherine (in Saint Paul, Minnesota), the University of Georgia, Young Harris College and Illinois State University.

John Baboukis’s former students – many are now accomplished music educators, composers, and conductors across North America – have been sharing their memories on social media. Responding to Hilary, they all celebrate Baboukis’s profound influence on their development. Nicholle Andrews, who studied choral conducting with him at McGill University, highlighted the maestro’s “generosity, patience, expertise, and musicianship,” qualities that shone through in every lesson, rehearsal, and class. She reflects that Baboukis not only transformed the trajectory of her career but also laid the groundwork for her doctoral studies and beyond.

Another McGill student and choir member captured Baboukis’s unique talent, describing how “you could feel him move the energies in the air, much like a Tai Chi master, guiding the dynamics and direction of the ensemble, no matter the piece. He embodied music in his being and shared that with all who sang with him.”

The many heartfelt tributes filling social media also speak volumes about Baboukis’s deep connection to Egypt, a place that would come to define much of his later career.

In 2005, Baboukis joined the American University in Cairo (AUC) as an Assistant Professor and Director of the Music Program, a role he held until his retirement in 2024. His decision to move to Egypt was motivated by his fascination with the country’s rich musical history, and his particular interest in connections between Arab and Greek music, Byzantine chant, and early Western Medieval music.

During his tenure at AUC, Baboukis taught music theory, literature, and history while also directing the AUC Chamber Singers and coaching various musical ensembles. For 12 years, he served as the conductor of the Cairo Choral Society (CCS), a community choir affiliated with the University and founded in 1983 by its first conductor, Larry P. Catlin. The CCS, comprising members of diverse backgrounds, including numerous students, flourished under Baboukis’s leadership as he guided the choir in performing major works during Easter and Christmas seasons, and occasionally throughout the year, presenting masterpieces such as Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation and Nelson Mass, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Brahms’s German Requiem and Schicksalslied, Beethoven’s Mass in C and Choral Fantasy, Mozart’s Requiem, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, and Vivaldi’s Gloria. In these concerts, Baboukis also conducted the Cairo Festival Orchestra, made up of professional musicians, adding depth to the performances.

Alongside his work with the CCS, Baboukis’s particular interest in early music prompted him to found the Lions of Cairo, a group composed primarily of AUC faculty, with a repertoire spanning Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music, topped with Byzantine chant and selected pieces from the Arabic classical repertoire.

The Paris-based Egyptian tenor Joseph Kauzman recalls meeting the maestro in 2005, when he attended one of Baboukis’s events with a friend. “It was a concert/lecture. We were two young tenors, very passionate, and we just asked him: ‘we want to sing with you!’ And that was the beginning of the Lions of Cairo! For more than a year, John worked with us, amateur singers, patiently and passionately; he taught us everything.” Kauzman recounts how the maestro continued to teach “hundreds and hundreds of other students, always with the same passion, positive energy, smile, and his ‘Inshallah’,” Baboukis’s hallmark expression adopted from Arabic.

The Lions of Cairo continued to forge their path through Egypt’s dense landscape of mainstream offerings. Dedicated to early Western music while also exploring the rich traditions of the Arabic classic repertoire, their rare appearances nevertheless created a very distinct, almost sacred atmosphere, allowing listeners to transcend time, place, and religion. “There is no other ensemble in Cairo I know of that brings together such synergy between these diverse musical traditions, and I believe The Lions will thrive as long as I have the energy to nurture and expand this work,” Baboukis remarked in one interview, clearly referring to the ensemble as one of his cherished creations.

And as Baboukis carried the torch of music, its light illuminated the lives of hundreds of his students, both those enrolled at the university and those he encountered on his many musical journeys. Passionate, generous, modest, knowledgeable, inspiring, patient, and dedicated are just a few of the words frequently used to describe him.

Issa Murad, a French-Palestinien oud player and composer who taught at the AUC calls Baboukis “a notable musician with a wide vision. I learned a lot from him and played together on many occasions. I won’t forget the trust he and Dr. Wael El Mahallawy [Associate Professor and Chair of Arts] put in me when they asked me to teach the world music classes at the AUC besides other subjects. [Though] it was a real challenge for me at that time, it shifted my career as music educator and musician.”

Baboukis’s musical influence crossed and even changed the paths of many, as was the case with Egyptian singer and composer Chérine M. Abulwafa, who started by minoring in music in 2015, “eventually turning it into a major in 2024,” as she puts it. “He has always been so incredibly encouraging and supportive, and always knew that I’ll eventually give in to my love and passion for music regardless of how far astray I would go.”

His influence was not limited to his formal teaching roles; he was a figure who inspired affection and admiration wherever he went. Singer Hany Mustafa recalled with affection his last encounter with the maestro: “It was this humour, married to your kindness and brilliance as a musician, composer, and orchestrator, that made it an absolute joy to be in your presence.”

For Baboukis, connecting with people and communicating through music was at the heart of his life’s purpose. Even when the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted human interaction and confined everyone to their homes, he found a way to stay engaged. In May 2020, he launched a new music series featuring performances from musicians in their own homes. “We’re going to invite you into our homes, and we’ll play some music for you,” Baboukis said in the introduction to the first episode, where he can be seated in front of his harpsichord. “I won’t even call this a concert; it’s more like a visit to my home where I’m sharing my musical comfort food – old favorites of mine,” he continued, infusing the moment with his signature wit. Titled This Is Not a Concert, the series continued featuring singers – soprano Dina Iskander and mezzo Nesma Mahgoub among them – in their homes.

While many remember Baboukis through their personal collaborations with him, his enduring legacy can also be found in his extensive catalogue of compositions, ranging from vocal music to works for chamber ensembles, piano, harpsichord, clavichord, and organ. Some of them made an impact within Egyptian concert halls. In March 2013, his bassoon concerto Three Walks in Zamalek was premiered by the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, with Baboukis performing solo on the harpsichord. His Symphony for Cairo had its debut with the Cairo Symphony in June 2016. Later, in March 2017, he conducted both works during a performance at Ewart Hall with the Cairo Festival Orchestra.

Those were just a few of countless compositions left by Baboukis, many created as private commissions. He also won composer commissioning grants twice from the Jerome Foundation through the American Composers Forum, and has been honored with a McKnight Composition Fellowship. As his daughter mentioned on social media, the maestro “finished his last piece just a few days before he died, and it will premiere at the Cathedral’s Christmas concert on 21 December, 2024,” she wrote, referencing the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New York.

Baboukis’s legacy is not only in the music he composed or the performances he conducted but in the countless lives he touched through his mentorship and his ability to make music a source of joy, connection, and healing, always fostering meaningful connections across cultures.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 5 December, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly