Issa Boulos

Issa Boulos (b Jerusalem, 1968) is a Palestinian-American 'ud[1] player, composer, curriculum developer, researcher and educator. Born into a Christian family known for both music and literary traditions, his talent became evident at an early age, and he was singing Arab classical maqam [2,3] repertoire by age 7. He was enrolled and studied ‘ud with Abu Raw`hi 'Ibaidu at the Institute of Fine Arts in Ramallah.

Background

His musical activities started during the mid 1980s through acting as an arranger and performer with local folk and contemporary groups. In 1986, he released Al-‘Ashiq[4] with Sareyyet Ramallah Troup for Music and Dance[5] followed by Rasif Al-Madinah in 1989 with composer Jamil Al-Sayih. By the early 1990s, Issa was exploring Western music's principals of composition and orchestration, of which he incorporated various aspects into his own music. Those early years witnessed the composition of over 200 instrumental and vocal pieces and one large-scale extended work entitled Kawkab Akhar[6]. Subsequently, he was appointed director of Birzeit University's musical group Sanabil, in addition to training Al-Funoun Popular Dance Troupe[7] and Sareyyet Ramallah Troupe for Music and Dance. In the 1980s and 1990s Boulos broadened his artistic perspectives by splitting his time between Ramallah and Chicago. Eventually, he settled in Chicago in 1994 and enrolled in the music composition program at Columbia College Chicago where he studied music composition with Gustavo Leone and Athanasios Zervas and followed that up in the graduate program at Roosevelt University with Robert Lombardo and Ilya Levinson. He founded the Issa Boulos Ensemble in 1998 while continuing to perform his original contemporary compositions that ranged from maqam compositions to jazz. After completing his Masters degree in 2000, Boulos spent one year in his hometown, where he continued to be an active composer, educator and 'udist. During that year, he took on the position of instructor of Western music theory and history, 'ud, chorus, ensemble and theory of Arab music at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, Ramallah[8]. He has given workshops and lecture-demonstrations at several American and European institutes, most prominently, the University of Chicago, Yale, Michigan University and Oxford University. He continues to be invited throughout the US, Europe and the Middle East. Furthermore, he is often invited on radio shows such as Chicago’s WBEZ / National Public Radio[9,10] as an authoritative figure and consultant in Arab & Middle East music[11]. Other activities include, being the cofounder of Nawa Institute; leader of the al-Sharq Ensemble[12] & the Issa Boulos Ensemble[13]; member in Lingua Musica[14] and Nawa Ensemble[15]; and founder of the Arab Classical Music Society (ACMS)[16]. He reformed and directed the University of Chicago Middle East Music Ensemble[17] for more than ten years until he was recruited in 2010 to head the Arab Music Department at Qatar Music Academy in Doha, Qatar[18]. Boulos's portfolio includes traditional Arab compositions and arrangements, jazz, and film and theatre scores, notably those for Lysistrata 2000, Catharsis and recently the PBS documentary film The New Americans[19], and Nice Bombs[20]. In most of his orchestral compositions, Boulos incorporates the melodic material of maqam and some of the instruments associated with it such as the ‘ud, buzuq, baglama, qanun, nay, Turkish clarinet, santoor, and traditional percussion instruments. It was upon these achievements that he was commissioned to write original orchestral works for various renowned orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra[21]. He is a recipient of many awards and fellowships including the 2006 and 2003 Artist Fellowship Award by the Illinois Arts Council, and the Norwegian Fund Award in 2006, the Palestinian Cultural Fund Award in 2006, and the Arab Cultural Fund Award in 2010.

Musical Works Highlights

Discography[22]

Highlights of Recordings as Significant Ensemble Member

Highlights of Radio & Television Appearances

References

    1. http://middleeast.about.com/od/o/g/oud-definition.htm
    2. http://www.maqamworld.com/maqamat.html
    3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEGTytaiRts
    4. http://www.sareyyet.ps/index.php?lang=en
    5. https://soundcloud.com/wbez-worldview/global-notes-music-born-from
    6. http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/global-notes-chicago-oud-masters-perform-studio-0
    7. http://www.last.fm/music/Issa+Boulos
    8. http://www.issaboulos.com/sharq.html
    9. http://www.issaboulos.com/ibe.html
    10. http://www.arts.illinois.gov/artstour-roster/donald-neale-lingua-musica
    11. http://www.issaboulos.com/nawa.html
    12. www.issaboulos.com/acms/www/index.html
    13. http://www.music.com.qa/about-us/faculty/biography?pid=3&name=Issa_Boulos
    14. http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/newamericans/theseries_series_credits_03.html
    15. http://www.nicebombs.com/about.html
    16. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-09-16/entertainment/0609160171_1_world-music-festival-violin-and-orchestra-chen-yi
    17. http://las.depaul.edu/mol/docs/docs/Calendar_of_Events.pdf
    18. http://find.publicradio.org/searchsite=phc&client=phc&proxystylesheet=phc&filter=p&access=p&output=xml_no_dtd&q=issa+boulos&x=-1116&y=-59
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