Artist Profiles: Suzzana Owiyo
Suzzana was born in Kasaye of Nyakach Division in Nyando District, near the lake city of Kisumu. As a young girl, Suzzana was blessed with…
Artist Profiles: Zein L’Abdin
Zein L’Abdin, from Mombasa, was one of the pivotal figures of the Mombasa taarab scene. He was born on the Island of Lamu where he…
Artist Profiles: Issam Rafea
Born in Kuwait on 1971, Issam has studied in Kuwait and Syria at the High Institute of Music in Damascus as a student of Fayez…
Artist Profiles: Bakyt Chytyrbaev
Kyrgyz musician Bakyt Chytyrbaev came across the kyl-kyjak in his early 20s. While traveling in neighboring Tajikistan he saw it in the hands of a…
Artist Profiles: Nurak Abdrakhmanov
Kyrgyz musician Nurak Abdrakhmanov was born in 1946. It was right after the end of World War 2. Nurak’s father and grandfather, both komuz players,…
Artist Profiles: Ilgi
In 1981, Ilga Reizniece formed the folk ensemble Ilgi. Like other folk musicians, the members of Ilgi spent time seeking out their elders – the…
Artist Profiles: Bassam Saba
Bassam Saba was a native of Lebanon, where he studied ‘ud, violin, and nay (Arab flute) at the Lebanese National Conservatory. In 1976, he moved…
Artist Profiles: Charbel Rouhana
Charbel Rouhana, one of the finest ud (also spelled oud) players in Lebanon. Born in 1965 in Aamchit (a town north of Beirut), Charbel pursued…
Artist Profiles: Claude Chalhoub
Born in 1974 in Lebanon into a family of musicians, Claude Chalhoub was introduced to the violin by his father who played the rebec. At…
Artist Profiles: Fairuz
Born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon in 1935, Nouhad Haddad, better known as Fairuz, is an Arabic music superstar. She began her musical career as…