Simon Shaheen & Qantara (Friday 19/7/2004 ) Born in Tarshiha, Galilee, Simon Shaheen began learning the oud at age five and a year later began studying violin at the Music Conservatory. He graduated from Jerusalem’s Academy of Music in 1978 and moved to New York to complete his studies. In the early 1980s, he formed the Near Eastern Music Ensemble. Shaheen has performed at the world’s greatest venues, including Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Cairo’s Opera House, Theatre de la Ville in Beirut, and Belgium’s Le Palais des Arts.

In 2000, he appeared at the Grammy Awards with Sting. Since 1994, he has produced the Annual Arab Festival of Arts, held in New York to showcase Arab artists and present the scope, depth and quality of Arab culture. In 1998, he formed Qantara, an ensemble that fuses Arab, jazz, Western Classical and Latin music. Qantara made their first recording in a “historic” live recording featuring Wadi’i As-Safi and Sabah Fakhri.    Watch Video  (1363.85KB)