Nuri Iskandar ( syr, ܢܘܪܝ ܐܣܟܢܕܪ, ar, نوري إسكندر, born 1938 in Deir al-Zur, Syria), was an

Assyrian Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyrian ...

Syrian

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...

and composer, he is known for his work in Assyrian/Syriac sacral and

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

Biography

Nuri Iskandar was born in Deir al-Zur to an

family originally from

Urfa Urfa, officially known as Şanlıurfa () and in ancient times as Edessa, is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. Urfa is situated on a plain about 80 km east of the Euphrates River. Its climate features ex ...

in modern-day

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. His family moved to Aleppo in 1941, he joined the local Syriac Orthodox scout band where he took his first music lessons. He studied at the higher institute of music at the

University of Cairo Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...

Between 1959 and 1964 and graduated with B.A degree in music. He started composing Assyrian folk music in the early 1970s popular songs like ''O habibo'', ''Zliqe frisi'', ''Lo tehfukh'' and others. Upon returning to Syria he established a number of

Choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

s, and in 1973, he participated in the first modern festival of Assyrian music in Beirut. Presenting a number of Assyrian folk songs with the Lebanese musician Wadi al-Safi. He presented a number of Operettas in Syriac and Arabic the most notable of them were ''Furqono''. Nouri was currently the director of the Music Conservatory of Aleppo. Nouri later moved to Örebro, Sweden. He passed away on December 25th, 2023.

References

External links

* * 1938 births Living people Syrian composers Syrian people of Assyrian descent Syrian Assyrian people Syriac Orthodox Christians Syrian Oriental Orthodox Christians Assyrian musicians {{Syria-musician-stub