The third Mesopotamian Night was held on August 15, 2009 at the Gallo Center for the Arts in Modesto, CA.
It was the first time that the project was able to acquire a major sponsorship from the James Irvine Foundation (http://irvine.org/) ..A two years grant, perhaps one of the first Assyrian organization to attract such grants from a prestigious grant making instruction. The focus of the event was classical music premiering “Assyryt No.1” a Symphonic Suite based of Paulos Khofri’s work, the “Opera Qateeni” a creation of the French composer Michel Bosc based on William Daniel’s literary master piece Qateeni Gabbara, and two scenes of The Gilgamesh Opera a creation of John Craton based on modern Assyrian version of the epic by Addai Alkhas. The 2009 event also gave birth to Mesopotamia Choir ensemble by performing several pieces of Paulos Khofri and Nebu Issabey. The contributing pop artists to that year event were Mr. Emanoel Bet Younan and Mrs. Lida Lawando who performed some of their popular songs.
Another important contribution of the Mesopotamian Night project in 2009 was the establishment of the Mesopotamian Achievement Awards . Our first award of “Raab-Musiqoreh” was presented to the late Rabi Issa Benyamin. He made his last public speeches that year in our event.