Birth: 1/1/1963 Death:NULL/NULL/NULL
Born in Jerusalem in 1963; attended the Frères College in Jerusalem; played the clarinet in the school-based band Rainless Reindeers in the late 1970s; later joined two Jerusalem-based bands, Friends of the Earth and Al-Manar; enrolled in Middle Eastern Studies at Birzeit University and was clarinet and nay player for the Birzeit student band Sanabel; co-founded the musical group Sabreen in Jerusalem in 1980, playing the clarinet, saxophone and nay until 1986; studied Musicology and Music Performance at the University of Iowa, US, from 1983-85; taught Music at the Friends’ Girls School in Ramallah and the Hellen Keller School for the Visually Impaired in Jerusalem; also taught a nay course in Birzeit until 1987; co-founded the Palestinian Popular Art Center in Al-Bireh in 1987 and acted as its Director until 1993; was arrested and imprisoned by Israel for six months in 1988 for producing a tape of music; co-founded and was artistic director of Al-Funoun Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe from 1989-93; was Director of the Dept. for Music and Dance at the PA Ministry of Culture from 1994-95; co-founded Yabous Productions in Jerusalem in 1995; started a band known as Washem in 1995, which came up with a CD entitled Ashiqa; co-founded the National Conservatory for Music (now the Edward Said National Conservatory for Music) in 1993 and serves as its Dir.-Gen. since 1996; co-founded the Palestine International Festival for Music and Dance in 1993 and serves as its Dir.-Gen.; worked as advisor for cultural events for the Bethlehem 2000 project in 1999; also co-founded and chaired the Network of Palestinian Art Centers; member of the Oriental Music Ensemble; founder, in 2003, and Pres. of the Forum of Arab Conservatories of Music, devoted to building a network of music educators and developing teaching resources; his own productions include Marj Ibn Amer (1989) and Ashiqa (1998) as well as the children’s songs collections Marah (1987), Matar (1998) and Bas Shwai (2003); has composed the first ever Palestinian musical Fawanees, which was performed in Ramallah in summer 2004.
