Rahim AlHaj "Lamma Bada Yatathanna"

Iraqi-American composer/oud virtuoso Rahim AlHaj—traveling the world to “give voice to the voiceless"–performed at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy NY on May 24, 2017 in support of his Smithsonian Folkways Recordings release "Letters From Iraq," a powerful musical meditation on consequences in a post-war reality. He performed with Sourena Sefati, santour, and Issa Malluf, percussion. www.mediasanctuary.org http://www.rahimalhaj.com Rahim AlHaj, virtuoso oud musician and composer, was born in Baghdad, Iraq and began playing the oud (the grandfather of all stringed instruments) at age nine. Mr. Alhaj studied under the renowned Munir Bashir, considered by many to be the greatest oud player ever, and Salim Abdul Kareem, at the Institute of Music in Baghdad, Iraq. Mr. AlHaj won various awards at the Conservatory and graduated in 1990 with a diploma in composition. He holds a degree in Arabic Literature from Mustunsariya University in Baghdad. In 1991, after the first Gulf War, Mr. AlHaj was forced to leave Iraq due to his activism against the Saddam Hussein regime and began his life in Jordan and Syria. He moved to the US in 2000 as a political refugee and has resided in Albuquerque, NM ever since. In 2015 Rahim was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship, the highest honor for traditional arts in the USA. Born in 1977 in Ramsar-Iran, Sourena Sefati started playing santour at the age of eleven. He learned Persian classical music with Majid Kiani, a leading figure in the Iranian musical establishment, and the modern techniques of playing santour with master Kurdish musician Ardavan Kamkar. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Iranian Music from University of Tehran and his Master’s degree in Iranian Music Performance from Art University of Tehran in 2002 and 2008 respectively. Sourena has performed around the world and is a composer in his own right. Palestinian-American percussionist Issa Malluf is a native of New Mexico. Originally self-taught, Issa has become a highly skilled and internationally recognized specialist in Middle Eastern, Arabic, and North African percussion.