Shaheen, Simon

(b Tarshīha, Galilee, 1955). Palestinian ’ūd player, violinist, composer and teacher. He comes from a family of musicians and began to study the ’ūd at the age of five with his father, the composer and conductor Hikmat Shaheen. At the age of seven he entered the Rubin Conservatory in Haifa to study the violin and Western classical music. He graduated from the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in 1978 and remained there for two years as an instructor in the performance and theory of Arab music.

In 1980 he moved to New York, where he studied at the Manhattan School of Music and later at Columbia University. He subsequently performed as a soloist and as a member of the Near Eastern Music Ensemble, which he founded in 1982, and he has given workshops and lecture-demonstrations at several American colleges and universities. His performances have ranged from classical Arab compositions to contemporary jazz fusion. In 1992 he formed the Alcantra Fusion Ensemble and in 1994 he became producer of the Annual Arab Festival of Arts in New York.

In his first important composition, Theme and Variations, for ’ūd and orchestra, Shaheen used a variety of Western classical compositional techniques; the work is a tribute to the Egyptian composer Muhammed Abdel-Wahab, to whom Shaheen later dedicated a CD. His subsequent works include traditional Arabic compositions and arrangements, jazz, and film and theatre scores, notably those for the films The Sheltering Sky and Malcolm X.

In 1994 he received a National Heritage Fellowship Award for his contribution to traditional music; his blend of tradition and innovation has forged important musical links between the Arab world and the West.

RECORDINGS

REEM KELANI