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Simon Shaheen: Fusion at its Best
Fusing traditional Arab sounds and Western classical music together is the specialty of Palestine-born American oud and violin maestro Simon Shaheen.
The Catholic Arab musician and composer, who has been performing oud and violin since he was a small child, endeavours to spread his love of this music across the world.
Mr Shaheen and his ensemble Qantara went another step further in spreading this unique style of music when they made their debut performance at Bahrain’s Cultural Hall last night.
Being able to perform in the Arab world is one of the dreams that came true for Mr Shaheen when he immigrated to America following his studies in New York in the 1970s and 1980s.
“I wanted to be in New York to expose myself to so many fantastic musicians around the world,” he told the GDN.
“My US citizenship allowed me to travel to the Arab world for the first time because under the Israeli regime, I couldn’t travel.”
Mr Shaheen was born in the village of Tarshiha, in Palestine, and grew up listening to traditional Arabic music. His family were musicians and his father Hikmat was a composer and oud player.
“I started to play the oud when I was three-and-a-half, and performance was at four-and-a-half, five,’ said Mr Shaheen.
“My father used to perform the first of every month across the country and I used to perform for 10 minutes, so this is how it started.
“Then a year later, I started to play the violin as a student at the Conservatory for Western Classical Music in Jerusalem.”
After graduating from the Academy of Music in Jerusalem in 1978, Mr Shaheen was appointed its instructor of Arab music, performance and theory.
Two years later, he moved to New York City to complete his graduate studies in performance at the Manhattan School of Music and later in performance and music education at Columbia University.
In 1982, Mr Shaheen formed the Near Eastern Music Ensemble in New York.
This also marked the start of his workshops and lectures in schools, colleagues and universities.
“I was trained and grew up with traditional Arabic music and my father was the first to introduce me to this fantastic repertoire, then I went to study classical music,” he said.
“At the same time, I was always interested in American jazz and music from around the world and of course South American music was a big thing in my life.
“When I came to New York and finished my school, I started promoting my career as a traditional Arab musician who performed the classic Arabic music in America, Europe and even in the Middle East because we don’t see much of this type of music in the Middle East. They are abandoning it for some reason.”
In the 1990s, Mr Shaheen created something he describes as close to fusion music and in 2001, with his ensemble, made his first recording called Blue Flame.
This recording, he said became a kind of cornerstone in finding the clash in musical civilisations, which some might call fusion.
“I put together organically, as a composer, compositions that are based on Arabic traditional style, the Western forms and the jazzy improvisations, not only with traditional Arabic rhythms but also importing South American rhythms, such as using flamenco, which is originally Arabic,” he said.
Mr Shaheen and Qantara’s performance launched Bahrain’s 18th International Music Festival.
The week-long international music concert features artists from Italy, Syria, Argentina, Palestine, France and Portugal.
The festival has been organized by the Culture and National Heritage Sector of the Culture and Information Ministry and will also feature a photographic exhibition on the last five decades of jazz music organized by the US Embassy.
Mr Shaheen’s visit to Bahrain was organised by the ministry in co-operation with the US Embassy.
Gulf Daily News