Nizar Rohana is of Palestinian extraction and was born in 1975 in 'Esefya, a village on Mount Carmel in Israel. He began playing music from an early age and was introduced to the oud when he was fifteen. In 1996 his love of music took him in to Jerusalem, where he spent the next five years studying for a Bachelor of Music and Arts (specialising in oud performance and musicology) at the Arabic Music Department of the Rubin Academy for Music and Dance and the Musicology Department of the Hebrew University. He then pursued a Master's degree in musicology, focusing on the work of the Egyptian composer and oud player Mohamed El Qasabgi. From 2001 to 2007 Nizar also worked as an oud teacher at the Edward Said National Conservatory in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem. He released his first CD 'Sard' in 2008 and has also recorded with Jerusalem-born musician Guy Kark as Duo Esperanto. Nizar currently lives in the Netherlands and is one of the best-known oud players on the Palestinian music scene - as well as performing in Europe he has given concerts as far afield as Japan, Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, the USA.
Duo Esperanto represents a collaboration between Nizar Rohana and multi-instrumentalist Guy Kark to explore the diversity of the Arab and Mediterranean/Hebrew musical traditions.
1. Suf 4:34
2. Galgal 3:03
3. Bayat 8:12
4. My First Klezmer 4:19
5. Raki'a 3:57
6. Wedding Song 4:57
7. Ave Maria 9:34
8. Tzur 6:38
9. Local Mythology 8:45
10. Amnon and Tamar 5:25
Sard
(Nizar Rohana)
The CD features five of Rohana's own compositions, as well as two well-known Arabic pieces. He is joined by Waffa Zaghal on qanun, Geoffroi Delori on double bass and Hani Assad on percussion.
