Zafer Tawil is a Palestinian composer and virtuoso musician born in East Jerusalem who is skilled at playing various musical instruments such as oud, violin, and kanun, and Arabic percussion. Zafer has performed in concerts throughout the United States, including performances with numerous musicians ranging from Sting to Arab and North African artists such as Chab Mami, Simon Shaheen, Bassam Saba and George Ziadeh, to avant-garde composer and performer Elliot Sharpe.
He was a featured composer and performer in director Jonathan Demme’s movie Rachel Getting Married and composed and performing for Demme’s film project, Zeitoun, based on Dave Eggers’ book about Abdulrahman Zeitoun’s post-Hurricane Katrina odyssey.
Zafer has worked on many collaboration concerts involving classical Indian and Persian music as well as Arab jazz fusion. He has held workshops on Arab music at many institutions and universities across the United States. He resides in New York City.
Author: Douglas Sanders
