Omar Bashir ( ar, عمر بشير) is an Iraqi-Hungarian musician. His father,

Munir Bashir Munir Bashir, ( ar, منير بشير, syr, ܡܘܢܝܪ ܒܫܝܪ) (1930 – September 28, 1997) was an Iraqi Assyrian musician and one of the most famous musicians in the Middle East during the 20th century and was considered to be the supreme m ...

, was considered to be the supreme master of the Arab

maqam MAQAM is a US-based production company specializing in Arabic and Middle Eastern media. The company was established by a small group of Arabic music and culture lovers, later becoming a division of 3B Media Inc. "MAQAM" is an Arabic word meaning a ...

at scale system. Omar Bashir was born in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

in 1970, and started playing the oud with his father at the age of five. He joined the Baghdad Music and Ballet School and eventually created his own band, which toured in many countries. In 1991, he left for Budapest and joined the

Franz Liszt Academy The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music ( hu, Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetem, often abbreviated as ''Zeneakadémia'', "Liszt Academy") is a music university and a concert hall in Budapest, Hungary, founded on November 14, 1875. It is home to the ...

. Omar performed as a soloist and with his father Munir until his death in 1997. During his career, he toured many countries and released more than 19 albums. His music is a mix of traditional Arabic music with a jazz-like improvisation.

Musical works and performances

Albums

Omar Bashir released a total of 23 CDs. His album ''Crazy Oud'' was released in 2010 by the record company EMI. The sales of this CD has topped the charts in several Arab countries. Below is a listing of all of the albums he has released, in chronological order: * ''Music from Iraq'' - 1992 * ''Duet of the Two Bashirs: Munir and Omar'' - 1994, dubbed by French papers at the time to be the "best musical performance." * ''From the Euphrates to the Danube'' - 1997, a mix of oud and Western music. The title of this CD refers to the two rivers generally near where he grew up and where he was born, respectively. * ''Ashwaq'' - 1998, a solo oud performance * ''My Memories'' - 1998, included the oud and percussion instruments * ''Flamenco Night'' - 1998, a recording of the last concert that Omar played with his father, before the latter's death * ''Al Andalus'' - 1999, the first-ever combination of oud and guitar, produced by Shahin Production in Lebanon * ''Zikrayati'' - 1999. The song, whose title means "my memories," was played using oud and percussion. * ''Live Solo Oud Performance'' - 2000, played in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

*Maqam - 2000 * ''Sound of Civilizations'' - 2001,

Buddha Bar The Buddha-Bar is a bar, restaurant, and hotel franchise created by French-Romanian restaurateur Raymond Vișan and DJ and interior designer Claude Challe, with its original location having opened in Paris, France in 1996.Anthony D'Andrea, ' ...

style of music * ''To My Father'' - 2002, used oud and percussion to play and improvise pieces performed together with his father * ..Bghdadiyat with Shara Taha 2002 * ''Gypsy Oud'' - 2003, a combination of oud and Hungarian

Gypsy The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

music * ''Latin Oud'' - 2004, the first time that

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

tunes were played on the oud * ''Oud Hawl al Alam'' ("Oud Around the World") - 2004, played first at a live concert in

, this was the first time that music from the oud and guitar were combined * ''Crazy Oud'' - 2010, involves various styles of music, such as Iraqi

rumba The term rumba may refer to a variety of unrelated music styles. Originally, "rumba" was used as a synonym for "party" in northern Cuba, and by the late 19th century it was used to denote the complex of secular music styles known as Cuban rumba ...

flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

, ambient, classical, folklore, and improvisation * The Platinum Collection . EMI 2011 * ''Masters of Oud'' - 2010, duets performed by Munir and Omar Bashir and released by EMI, which created the CD remixes "Baghdad Blues - Desert Launch", "Mesopotamix" and "Café du Paris". * ''Takasim'' - 2012, a solo oud recording produced by INEDIT Records * ''The Legend Live Concert'' - 2015 Universal Company

Concerts and tours

Arab countries and America

Lebanon: Almadina Theatre - Beirut, Alhariri Theatre - Sajda – Lebanon Egypt: The Opera House in Cairo and Alexanderia Syria: City Theatre, Mar Elyan Church & The International Festival. Jordan: The Royal Theatre & Jeresh Festival Tunis: Al Mashtal Theatre, Ken Festival Morocco: Fes, Rabat, Casablanca, Marakesh, Tatwan and Aghadir. Oud Duo tour concert: Munir Bashir & Omar as well as solo Oud performances in Mawazin Festival and Oud International Festival. Algeria: National Theatre Palestine: Ramallah Popular art centre UAE: Dubai and Abu Dhabi: Islamic Music Festival and WOMED Festival. Bahrain: 5th Spring Cultural Festival. USA: touredextensivelythroughvarious US states: New York, Washington- Durham, Arcansas, Denver and variousothersatesperforming at variousprestigiousvenueswhich included Cambridge Academy, Lincoln Jazz Theatre, Symphony Space, The Duke University, World Culture Museum, Kennedy Centre. Canada-Montreal: Arab Music Festival ..2008..2015

United States

Omar Bashir has traveled through various states, including New York,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, and others, performing at venues including the

Cambridge Academy Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge became ...

Lincoln Jazz Theater Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

Symphony Space Symphony Space, founded by Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller, is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (also called Pe ...

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

, the

World Culture Museum In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

, and the

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bashir, Omar 1970 births Living people Iraqi musicians People from Mosul Musicians from Budapest Iraqi oud players Hungarian people of Iraqi descent Hungarian people of Assyrian descent Iraqi people of Hungarian descent