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Simon Shaheen is a musician who performs and composes music that reflects traditional Arabic culture while embracing modern jazz and classical styles of the Western World. 

Shaheen's father was a professor of music and a master oud player. "Learning to play on the oud from my fatehr was the most powerful influence in my musical life," Shaheen recalls. He began playing the oud at age five, and studied violin at the Concervatory for Western Classical Music in Jerusalem. "When I held and played these instruments, they felt like an extension of my arms."

In 1982, Shaheen formed the Near Eastern Music Ensemble in New York and established a series of Arab music workshops and lectures for schools. Today, Shaheen also produces annual festivals and retreats to promote Arabic arts.

Shaheen has recorded several albums with his musical group, Qantara. The band, whose name means "arch" in Arabic, brings to life Shaheen's fusion of Arab, jazz, Western classical, and Latin American music.

"I want to create a world of music exceptionally satisfying to the ear and for the soul," says Shaheen, "This is why I selected members for Qantara who are all virtuosos in their own musical forms, and whose expertise and knowledge can raise the music and the group's performance to spectacular levels."

Musical Instruments of the Arab World

Much of the world's scientific understanding of music comes from the Ancient Greeks (the word "music" comes from the Greek word mousiki, the science of composing melodies). But it was the book by Muslim philosopher Abu Nasr al-Farabi (872-951 BCE), Kitab al-Musiqa al-Kabir, that significantly expanded upon Ancient Greek theories by exploring the aesthetics of music and providing detailed information on musical instruments.

As Europeans began to travel to new lands during the Middle Ages, Arab musical instruments and the writings of al-Farabi became known to the Western world. In fact, Arab culture is responsible for the introduction of practically the entire drum family to European music.

Drums

The tabla is a large drum held between the legs or suspended over the shoulder. It is played with both hands and produces different sounds when beaten near the edge or near the middle. The tabla was adopted by European armies for theor military bands, which had previously only been served by trumpets and horns.

The bendir is a round, flat drum with wires stretched across the inside, which creates a sound similar to a snare drum. The taar is similar to the bendir, but with jungling plates in the rim, similar to a modern tambourine.

The dumbek is a goblet-shaped drum, similar to the African djemble, played with both hands whild under one arm. It produces a diverse range of sounds, from crisp (played near the edge) to resonant (played in the middle). 

The naker is a pair of drums with rounded bodies played with wooden sticks. The larger European orchestral kettledrum, or timpani, is a direct descendent of the naker.

Stringed Instruments

The body of al-'ud, also called the oud, is shaped like a pear and has up to 12 strings. European minstrels originally played harp-like instruments until Arabs brought the al-'ud (Arabic for "wood") to Europe, where it was adopted and renamed the lute.

The Spanish word "guitarra" (guitar) was derived from the Arabic qitara.

The qanoon is a large flat instrument with between 64 and 82 strings. A similar multi-stringed instrument, al-santoor, is played with wooden sticks. The European word "kanon" (canon) is derived from qanoon. 

The rababeh is a single-stringed instrument with a square sound-box, played with a bow. The rababeh spread to Europe (as the rebec), and is considered a percursor of the violin.