Ahmad al-Khatib was born in Jordan into a family of Palestinian refugees. He began to learn the oud from an early age and went on to study music and cello at Al-Yarmouk University in Jordan. After graduating in 1997 he returned to Palestine and helped establish the Oriental Music Department at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, later becoming its head. In 1999 he joined the Karloma ensemble, which has since recorded several CDs. Ahmad left Palestine in 2002 and is currently living in Sweden, where he is studying for a Master's degree in Ethnomusicology at the University of Gothenburg. You can listen to samples of his music on his MySpace page and find out more about Karloma on their website.