Abed Azrie or Abed Azrié ( ar, عابد عازرية) (born 1945 in Aleppo) is a French-

Syrian Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indig ...

singer and composer, who performs Classical music in a variety of languages, including Arabic, English, French, German, Spanish, and other. He describes his works as not belonging to any particular music tradition. In his work he sets ancient and modern Arabic, Sumerian, and other West Asian texts to traditional instruments (such as the

ney The ''ney'' ( fa, Ney/نی, ar, Al-Nāy/الناي), is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Persian music and Arabic music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. The ney has been played continuall ...

, kanun,

darbuka The goblet drum (also chalice drum, tarabuka, tarabaki, darbuka, darabuka, derbake, debuka, doumbek, dumbec, dumbeg, dumbelek, toumperleki, tumbak, or zerbaghali; arz, دربوكة / Romanized: ) is a single-head membranophone with a goblet-s ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

, flute and

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can re ...

), and

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis ...

s. He was born in Aleppo, and after living for a time 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 ...

moved to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

at the age of 22 where he studied

Western classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" ...

. While there he translated classical poetry, such as the Sumerian ''

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins wit ...

'', into French. He has stated that he prefers to live in the West, saying in a 2000 interview that he has an "inability to work in the Arab countries, in which the way people live is still conditioned by

halal ''Halal'' (; ar, حلال, ) is an Arabic word that translates to "permissible" in English. In the Quran, the word ''halal'' is contrasted with '' haram'' (forbidden). This binary opposition was elaborated into a more complex classification k ...

and

haram ''Haram'' (; ar, حَرَام, , ) is an Arabic term meaning 'Forbidden'. This may refer to either something sacred to which access is not allowed to the people who are not in a state of purity or who are not initiated into the sacred knowle ...

. Here I can produce contemporary art, I can work in freedom, and there is 'motion' around what I produce: journalism, concerts, programme…Nobody tells me to write a song for a specific political occasion." His music has been featured in the films ''Al Leja'', directed by Ryad Chaia, Elia Suleiman's ''Chronicle of a Disappearance''. and Florence Strauss's "''Between Two Notes''" 2006, as well as in Jan Visser's 1975 TV documentary ''De Droom'' (''The Dream''), based on drawings by and interviews with Palestinian refugee children and Palestinian resistance poetry.

Discography

* 1990: ''Aromates'' * 1994: ''Epopée de Gilgamesh'' * 1996: ''Lapis Lazuli'' * 1999: ''Pour enfants seulement'' * 1999: ''Omar Khayyam'' * 2001: ''Venessia'' - sung in Venetian dialect. * 2006: ''Suerte Live'' * 2007: ''Chants d'amour et d'ivresse'' (Live A Radio France) * 2008: ''Mystique'' - Sufi poems * 2009: ''Évangile selon Jean'' oratorio in Arabic, 2CDFrançois Bensigno
review in French on Mondomix.com
Doumtak / Nocturne. Booklet includes Arabic sung texts and English and French translations. * 2010: ''Satie En Orient'' with

Ensemble Sarband Ensemble may refer to: Art * Architectural ensemble * ''Ensemble'' (album), Kendji Girac 2015 album * Ensemble (band), a project of Olivier Alary * Ensemble cast (drama, comedy) * Ensemble (musical theatre), also known as the chorus * ''Ensem ...

* 2011: ''Epopée De Gilgamesh (New Recording 2011)''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Azrie, Abed 1945 births Living people 20th-century Syrian male singers People from Aleppo Syrian emigrants to France 21st-century French male singers