Kareem Roustom

Syrian-American Kareem Roustom is a musically bilingual composer who has collaborated with a wide variety of artists receiving numerous commissions to compose works for Kronos Quartet, Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and others. Roustom's music has been performed at the BBC Proms, the Salzburg & Lucerne Festivals, and from the far east to the near east, Europe, the USA and Latin America. His work in independent film has earned him an Emmy-nomination and he has collaborated with traditional and popular artists from around the world including Shakira and Tina Turner. His recent commissions include a clarinet concerto for clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and the Deutsches Symphony Orchestra, and a new commission for the Pierre Boulez Ensemble. Roustom holds the position of Professor of the Practice at Tufts University in Boston where he teaches composition and Arab music courses. For more information please visit www.kr-music.com.

Cultural Empathy Requires More Than Soundbites

by
Adaptistration People 016

In the weeks and months following the Trump travel ban I received several email requests from composers that were along the lines of the following: “I’m looking for melodies from the seven countries affected by the Trump travel ban.” …or… “[I’d like to write] arrangements of tunes sung by refugees (or more broadly, folk tunes/other culturally significant tunes) from the countries affected by the executive order. I am wondering if you …

Read more