Ahmed Mukhtar

Ahmed Mukhtar Arabic ,أحمد مختار (born 1967) is an Iraqi musician who is internationally renowned for his playing of the oud. He was born in Baghdad and is a graduate of the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad.

Biography

Ahmed was born in 1967 in Baghdad, Iraq and has played the oud and Arabic percussion since 1979. He worked with many folk music groups and musicians in Baghdad. He studied Oud and percussion with the masters Ganim Hadad and Jameel Jerjis and graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad. Ahmed worked with Arabic orchestras and performed on TV with several Iraqi groups. He went on to study Oud and western percussion at the high institute of music in Damascus. Later he studied at the London College of Music. At School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London, he earned a Master of music in performance, also Middle Eastern and Arabic music. Teaching Oud, percussion and Arabic music theory in many places in London such as SOAS-London University. From 1990 he became a performer and teacher and toured throughout the Middle East and Europe.

Mukhtar has written music for plays and documentaries for Arabic TV stations, such as MBC, ART, Mustakela and BB5, he also has composed music for a new Iraqi-European version of Stravinsky's Histoire du Soldat (A Soldier's Tale) that produced at The Old Vic at the end of January 2006. He released two CDs, in 1996 and 1999, both of which contain traditional music and original work. ARC music Company realized two CDs (rhythm of Baghdad-2003) and (Road to Baghdad-2005) for Mukhtar composition. Musicians Union in Britain at 1999 had awarded Ahmed an award of best known-western musical compositions.

The UN chose Ahmed and sixteen other musicians from all over the world to release a CD for the benefit of the victims of terrorism and wars. Human Rights Association adopted this. Today, he presents his own education musical program (Speech of the Oud) on the Almustaklah TV channel, which broadcasts from London. He also teaches Arabic music theory and percussion in London colleges.

Festival performances

* The International Festival in Poland -1987
* The International Festival of Arabic Music in Cairo-1994
* The Conference of Arabic Music in Damascus-1995
* The International Music Feast in Cambridge University1997
* The International Conference and Festival of Lute and Music in France and Spain 1998-2002
* The Festival of Iraqi Culture 2002
* The Festival of Iraqi Culture -Stockholm 2002.
* The Festival of the Iraqi Culture -Stockholm 2003
* WOMAD Global festival- Reading 2003
* Many live performances and concerts for BBC Radio 3 London.
* Mediterranean Festival 2004- Italy
* A guest performer in the international music day 1/1/2004 form BBC radio 3
* A guest performer in the Book International Exhibition in U.A.E- 2005
* Iraqi Music Week in London, as director and performer-2006
* Al Mada Festival - Iraq- April 2007
* A Gust performer on the Conference of Arab Writers in Algeria 2007
* A Gust performer on the Arabic Films Festival in Italy 2007
* Iraqi Cltuer week in UNESCO- Paris 2007

Discography

* The Road to Baghdad 2005 - New Maqams from Iraq
*Rhythms Of Baghdad 2003 - Ahmed Mukhtar & Sattar al-Saadi
*Words from Eden 1999 - Oud music from Iraq
*Tajwal 1997 LIVE - Recital on Oud

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=bb5r2Q-0ePw&eurl performance of "Longing"]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=comjDBjz564 performance of "Childhood"]
* [http://www.amukhtar.com/ Ahmed Mukhtar's website]