Biography
Simon Shaheen has built a reputation as an exceptional performer on the violin as well as the oud, which serves as an ancestral instrument to the lute in Middle Eastern traditions. Beyond his prowess as a performer, he has gained recognition for his compositions blending Arabic and Western styles, and for his educational efforts promoting Arabic music across Western audiences. His birth took place in 1955 within Tarshiha, Galilee, where his father Hikmet Shaheen, who instructed and created Arabic compositions while performing on the oud, immersed him in music from an early age. Shaheen commenced his oud studies at five years old and added the violin the following year. He remembered, "I just picked up on the instruments and they felt like an extension of me," adding, "With the oud I watched my father, I grew musically with him. That was the greatest school for me. Not necessarily that he taught me lessons, just living and playing with him." His enrollment at the Conservatory for Western Classical Music marked the beginning of an extended period of academic training. He advanced to the Academy of Music in Jerusalem and completed his studies there in 1977 when he reached the age of 23.
The academy offered him a position teaching Arabic Music, yet his desire to explore further opportunities led him abroad amid numerous invitations from international institutions for advanced studies. New York became his destination, where he selected the Manhattan School of Music over Juilliard, and subsequently pursued graduate studies in music education and musicology at Columbia. In 1982, motivated by a desire to counter the prevalent stereotypical views of Arabic and Middle Eastern music in the United States associated with belly dancing, he established the Near Eastern Music Ensemble to present authentic traditional Arabic repertoire through performances and educational sessions at venues from elementary schools to elite universities including Harvard and M.I.T. His solo performances gained prominence at prominent locations globally, encompassing Carnegie Hall and Le Palais des Arts in Brussels.
Recording efforts commenced for him only during the 1990s, despite earlier contributions scoring films such as The Sheltering Sky and Malcolm X. Taqasim marked his debut album, featuring extensive improvisational passages alongside Lebanese buzuq player Ali Jihad Racy. Work with producer Bill Laswell included the Material project album Hallucination Engine, though Shaheen expressed dissatisfaction with the result. Subsequent joint projects with Laswell encompassed The Music of Mohamed Abdel Wahab, interpreting pieces by the renowned Egyptian composer, and Turath, highlighting Shaheen's oud expertise. Saltanah represented a more contemplative effort alongside Indian musician Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, presenting original Shaheen compositions that illustrated his compositional breadth extending into Western classical and jazz realms. Prior to these releases, he had already secured compositional grants from the National Endowment for the Arts along with various foundations. Shaheen launched the Annual Arab Festival of the Arts in New York during 1994 to highlight leading Arabic musical performers, and established the Annual Arabic Music Retreat three years later at Mount Holyoke College as a weeklong program of lectures, workshops, and performances.
Formation of the band Qantara occurred in 1995, with the name signifying "arch," serving as a platform for Shaheen to investigate fusions across Arabic, jazz, and classical genres within an unrestricted environment. Their initial recorded contributions appeared on The Two Tenors album captured live in Las Vegas. Shaheen additionally took on the role of musical director for orchestras supporting singers Wadi Al-Safi and Sabah Fakhri. During 2000, Shaheen became among the earliest Arabs featured at the Grammy Awards, leading the orchestra for a performance by Sting and Algerian Cheb Mami of their successful single "Desert Rose." Toward the end of 2000, Qantara initiated recording sessions for their first album, scheduled for issuance in 2001, while Shaheen undertook a commissioned composition of a Western classical work for the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.
The academy offered him a position teaching Arabic Music, yet his desire to explore further opportunities led him abroad amid numerous invitations from international institutions for advanced studies. New York became his destination, where he selected the Manhattan School of Music over Juilliard, and subsequently pursued graduate studies in music education and musicology at Columbia. In 1982, motivated by a desire to counter the prevalent stereotypical views of Arabic and Middle Eastern music in the United States associated with belly dancing, he established the Near Eastern Music Ensemble to present authentic traditional Arabic repertoire through performances and educational sessions at venues from elementary schools to elite universities including Harvard and M.I.T. His solo performances gained prominence at prominent locations globally, encompassing Carnegie Hall and Le Palais des Arts in Brussels.
Recording efforts commenced for him only during the 1990s, despite earlier contributions scoring films such as The Sheltering Sky and Malcolm X. Taqasim marked his debut album, featuring extensive improvisational passages alongside Lebanese buzuq player Ali Jihad Racy. Work with producer Bill Laswell included the Material project album Hallucination Engine, though Shaheen expressed dissatisfaction with the result. Subsequent joint projects with Laswell encompassed The Music of Mohamed Abdel Wahab, interpreting pieces by the renowned Egyptian composer, and Turath, highlighting Shaheen's oud expertise. Saltanah represented a more contemplative effort alongside Indian musician Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, presenting original Shaheen compositions that illustrated his compositional breadth extending into Western classical and jazz realms. Prior to these releases, he had already secured compositional grants from the National Endowment for the Arts along with various foundations. Shaheen launched the Annual Arab Festival of the Arts in New York during 1994 to highlight leading Arabic musical performers, and established the Annual Arabic Music Retreat three years later at Mount Holyoke College as a weeklong program of lectures, workshops, and performances.
Formation of the band Qantara occurred in 1995, with the name signifying "arch," serving as a platform for Shaheen to investigate fusions across Arabic, jazz, and classical genres within an unrestricted environment. Their initial recorded contributions appeared on The Two Tenors album captured live in Las Vegas. Shaheen additionally took on the role of musical director for orchestras supporting singers Wadi Al-Safi and Sabah Fakhri. During 2000, Shaheen became among the earliest Arabs featured at the Grammy Awards, leading the orchestra for a performance by Sting and Algerian Cheb Mami of their successful single "Desert Rose." Toward the end of 2000, Qantara initiated recording sessions for their first album, scheduled for issuance in 2001, while Shaheen undertook a commissioned composition of a Western classical work for the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.
Albums
