CSPS debut
| Calling Rahim Alhaj’s music “beautiful, mysterious, and powerful,”
guitarist Bill Frisell said, “I’ve never heard anything like it.” The San
Francisco Chronicle has singled out Alhaj as “one of the top oud players
in the world” and critic Robert Christgau wrote, “…the compassion, love and
peace he preaches are as courageous as his music.”
Rahim was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and began playing the oud (the grandfather
of all stringed instruments) at age 9. He 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. Rahim won various
awards at the conservatory and graduated
in 1990 with a diploma in composition. In 1991, after the first Gulf War, he
was forced to leave Iraq due to his activism against the Saddam Hussein
regime, for which he was tortured during the 1980s. After living in Jordan
and Syria, he moved to the US in 2000 as a political refugee and has resided
in Albuquerque, NM ever since. He became a US citizen in 2008.
Rahim has performed around the world and
won many accolades and awards including two Grammy nominations. Rahim has
recorded and performed with other master musicians of varied backgrounds and
styles including genre-busting American guitarist Bill Frisell, modern
accordion innovator Guy Klucevsek, Indian sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan and indy-rock
pioneers REM. He has composed pieces for solo oud, string quartet, symphony
and beyond. Rahim’s music delicately combines traditional Iraqi maqams with
contemporary styling and influence. His compositions evoke the experience of
exile from his homeland and of new beginnings in his adopted country. His
pieces establish new concepts without altering the foundation of the
traditional “Iraqi School of Oud.”
Rahim has released seven CDs. His 2009
release, Ancient Sounds (UR Music), a duet recording with Amjad Ali
Khan, was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Traditional World Music
Recording category.
When the Soul is Settled: Music of Iraq (Smithsonian Folkways
Recordings) was also nominated for a Grammy in 2008. Look for a new
recording, Little Earth: Voices For Peace, in 2010. The project
features Rahim’s original composition in collaboration with the likes of
Frisell, Klucevsek, REM, Maria De Barros, Liu Fang, Robert Mirabal, Hossein
Omoumi, The Santa Fe Guitar Quartet and Little Earth Orchestra.
Sun Apr 18 | 7 pm
CSPS | 1103 Third St SE | Cedar Rapids
$17 + fee advance | $21 door Get tickets Click here for a downloadable flyer (PDF) Go to
artist's Web site Back to calendar Front page
Send comments or corrections to
info@legionarts.org
or phone 319.364.1580.
Legion Arts' Web site is expertly hosted by
