Abed Azrie or Abed Azrié (; born 1945 in

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

) is a

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

singer and composer, who performs

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

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 ( ; ) is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in traditional Persian, Turkish, Jewish, Arab, and Egyptian music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. The ney has been played for over 4,500 ye ...

, kanun,

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

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

and

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), 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 "lu ...

), and

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

s. He was born in

, and after living for a time in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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 #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

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

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian language, Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of ...

'', into

. 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'' (; ) is an Arabic word that translates to in English. Although the term ''halal'' is often associated with Islamic dietary laws, particularly meat that is slaughtered according to Islamic guidelines, it also governs ethical practices ...

and

haram ''Haram'' (; ) is an Arabic term meaning 'taboo'. 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 knowledge; or, in direct cont ...

. 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'' (Kendji Girac album), 2015 * ''Ensemble'' (Ensemble album), 2006 * Ensemble (band), a project of Olivier Alary * Ensemble cast (drama, comedy) * Ensemble (musical theatre), ...

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

References

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