The Curation by Nour Hassan
The Curation, formerly Radical Contemporary, is a Digital Curator and Podcast based between Cairo, Dubai & Jeddah. We curate everything from art, fashion, and design, to culture, wellness and tech to present you with only the best brands, founders, products and pioneers.
The Curation by Nour Hassan
HUNA Talk: Faraj Abyad and the Revival of Classical Arabic Composition
What happens when a fourth-generation Syrian American decides to revive and reimagine classical Arabic music traditions from New York City? Faraj Abyad takes us on a mesmerizing journey through the microtonal landscapes of Tarab and Maqam theory while breaking industry norms with his original compositions.
Raised in a household where the legendary recordings of Sabah Fakhri played alongside his formal studies in jazz and Western music, Abyad developed a unique musical identity that bridges cultural worlds. As he explains, "I found that microtones in this music kind of took me to a state of Tarab or took me to a state of ecstasy that we can't find in Western music." This fascination with the emotional power of Arabic music theory became the foundation for his compositional approach.
Unlike many contemporary Arabic musicians who primarily cover the works of icons like Um Kulthum or Fayrouz, Abyad is dedicated to creating new classical Arabic compositions. We wpeak about him recording at New York's legendary Power Station Studios and working with The Originals and Oswalds Mills Audio.
The conversation reveals fascinating details about his album cover featuring Jawad Salim's rare painting "In the Presence of the Caliph" (unseen in color for 70 years) and his upcoming performance at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Listen now to discover how Faraj Abyad is creating new pathways for classical Arabic music in the modern world—and why his work matters for the future of this rich tradition.
Follow @thecurationpod and @hunaliving for more conversations exploring the intersection of art, culture, and innovation.
This season of the Curation podcast continues with a live recording from Art Dubai 2025, in partnership with Huna Living. As part of ARM Holding, huna creates communities rooted in culture, craftsmanship and well-being. In this conversation, faraj Abiyad delves into the art of sound, the beauty of Arabic music and his collaboration with the originals, oswald Smills Audio and His Excellency Sultan al-Qasimi for his album Cover. Faraj shares with us a beautiful excerpt of music at the beginning of this episode as well as at the end. So I hope you enjoy and without further ado, this is my conversation with Faraj Abiyad. We're proud to launch this special episode of the Curation Podcast in collaboration with Huna Living, recorded live at Art Dubai 2025. As part of ARM Holding, huna redefines elevated living through lifestyle-focused communities that blend artistry, design and sustainability. In this talk, afra Dahiri, ali Hussain Luta and Janet Bellotto explore the intersections of art, education and contemporary pedagogies in the UAE and beyond. We speak about their experiences as artists, educators and mentors and the importance of education and art in the contemporary landscape and as part of a greater ecosystem. Without further ado, this is my talk with Afra, alia and Janet. I hope you enjoy and I look forward to sharing more of these conversations with you on the Curation Podcast.
Speaker 1:Hello everyone, my name is Noor Hassan and I am the founder of the Curation Podcast, and this entire conversation with Faraj an exclusive, if you will will be found on my podcast. You can listen to it, you can watch it and you will will be found on my podcast. You can listen to it, you can watch it and you can hear the music again at any point. Thank you so much for starting with that incredible rendition. We really, really enjoyed it and I think it was the perfect, perfect beginning to our talk and I'm so happy we have met before, so we're friends, and this will be just a casual conversation, kind of diving into Faraj's incredible journey. I'm looking forward to you all, for you all, to hear it.
Speaker 1:The talk is called the Art of Sound and I believe nothing really exemplifies the art of sound as much as Faraj put it when he was speaking to me and explaining his work Arabic music and kind of the art of how that is composed. So I want to start with a question that I mean I believe I always ask all my guests what was the point of kind of inception for you with music? Where did it start?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. Well, you know, I grew up in a home of Syrians from Aleppo but living in New York, and it's known that the Aleppian Syrians, the Syrians from Halab, they have a very strong musical tradition of the Mouashah and Qudud and you know the name of my album is Qublatu Shi'rin, so it's all about Qasa'id classical Arabic poetry and Fusha. So I grew up with this tradition and though I'm actually fourth generation Syrian so my family has been in America for a hundred years, but our family very much kept this tradition of Qudud, halabiya and Syrian music. And growing up I was studying jazz and classical music and Western music, as I grew up in an environment without many Syrians. But when my grandfather would play these old records of Sabah Fakhri at home I would be so inspired by the sound, this interesting maqam.
Speaker 2:We call this Arabic music theory maqam, and it has something called rubatoun, which is in English. We call this Arabic music theory maqam, and it has something called ruba'ton, which is in English we call it microtones. So I found that this microtone and this microtonal music kind of took me to a state of tarab or took me to a state of ecstasy that we can't find in Western music. So I was very inspired by this sound and I was you. I was maybe 10 or 11 years old when I started to investigate the shari'i music, the eastern music, and then my journey started there, and then that's what led me to here.
Speaker 1:I love how you mentioned all of those elements and we'll get more into them. I asked you when I met you. I was very curious to know do you consider yourself a singer, a composer, a musician? And your answer was very interesting to me because I think perhaps you're all three at the moment, or always. Can you tell us a little bit more about how that came to be?
Speaker 2:yes, so. So I sing, I compose, I play this instrument called the oud, and this came to be. I guess it evolved. I started off as a singer and then I was always fascinated by the great composers of our culture, like Mohamed Abdel Wahab, riyad al-Sombati and we'll talk about them later. But I always felt that in our when we spoke about this the other day that in our scene of classical Arabic music it's very common to cover music from the past.
Speaker 2:Most very high-level Arabic singers that you meet they're singing Um Kalsum beautifully or Fayruz beautifully and they have the abilities to even compose, but the industry isn't asking them to and they're not asking them to compose in that genre. Maybe they're asking them to compose in pop or something more easy listening. But this tradition of Tarab is so beautiful that I believe strongly that it should be continued and it should be developed and taken to its own place. So that's the inspiration for my work and that's what led me to become a composer and, because of my maqam training from a young age, this helped me a lot to be able to take the library of Tarab songs that I have in my mind from classic singers like Waddi Asafi, fayruz, um Kalsoum, mohamed Abdel Wahab, and to kind of combine all these things with my western background as well to create my own sound that's personal for me, that I love.
Speaker 1:Thank you. So, since our talk today is called the Art of Sound, I think one of the most interesting things that you said was regarding the microtones that are available and kind of only accessible through Arabic music. It's the reason why, when you listen to Arabic music, you go into kind of a state of trance. There is some sort of feeling of being very much on a different level. But I want to understand and really because I think it's important to get technical with you, if not who else what is the importance of the tools and the instruments that you use not only to record but to project that sound, because we do want to get into the originals and their story with the incredible speakers that we'll be using today as well, but I want to know how important is it to record and play your music on the correct equipment?
Speaker 2:So, to answer your question, I would actually like to answer it with a little presentation that I prepared, with my friend, of course, and so we can actually hear the music and how we're producing it. So, if you can, please go to the next slide. So this is a room in New York in the Metropolitan Museum of Art called the Damascus Room, and in this room you can see, if you look very closely, there's like Arabic calligraphy from an Andalusian poet named Lisan-ed-Din ibn Khatib. And the museum approached me they know I'm the only Arabic composer living in New York, so I guess I was their only choice. They said can you compose this poetry on the walls? And if you go to the next slide, please, you can see this zoomed in version of the poetry. It says so.
Speaker 2:They requested for me to compose this work and we recorded it in one of the greatest studios in the world, in Power Station Studios in New York, where Nora Jones records her albums today. Bob Dylan recorded most of his most famous works in this studio, and the reason why this studio is so sacred for musicians is because of the vintage recording equipment. Recording equipment is like khashab al-awud it gets better with time.
Speaker 2:The sound of the awud gets better with time, so this is the kind of equipment we're recording on and I'll just play you a snippet of this recorded. It actually hasn't been mastered yet, so you're hearing a very raw version of it, and I'll just play you a snippet of this recorded it actually it hasn't been mastered yet, so you're hearing like a very raw version of it. But I would love for you to just see how we turn this very obscure, ancient Arabic poetry into a new composition. And, because I'm based in New York, we actually worked with some Afro-Cuban musicians and we found a lot of commonalities between Afro-Cuban music and Arabic music. So you can play the track.
Speaker 1:So in the meantime, until we get some music can you explain a little bit more why it's important to record at a studio like Power Station and how that kind of helped propel your album?
Speaker 2:Yes, so you know Power Station Studios, station studios. First of all, the way that it's built uh is with state-of-the-art acoustics, um, and if you see the studio, it's made like a dome. Like many religious uh places, they always have this dome for acoustics to create a beautiful sound, because they weren't always microphones. So it has this beautiful dome and it's made with very old wood, uh, the whole entire dome and also at the bottom of the studio, and then there are partitions between each musician and this creates a very beautiful acoustic experience. And then the microphones that we use are built in the 1920s, 1930s. The console that we use is like a $2 million console. It's a very rare piece. It's not just that it's very high-level technology, but it's also something rare, a vintage piece that you can't replicate. So this is what makes the studio so beautiful. I don't know if the track is the track ready the next one.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I'm a dancer. Thank you, salli ala al-Muhtari. Salli ala al-Muhtari.
Speaker 4:Salli ala al-Muhtari. Salli ala al-Muhtari. Salli ala al-Muhtari. Salli ala al-Muhtari.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you. So I think we are all now wondering how is it that you come to the process of composing this music? Because the point that you made at the beginning is that there are individuals who are able to play Um Kaltum, who are able to really replicate this type of music, but composing it from scratch, it's a different story.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's a great question. I mean composing it from scratch. Once you learn the repertoire, once you learn how to sing Um Kalsum and all these great role models of this music, and you understand Maqam theory, it's actually very easy to compose. And people often tell me oh, I want to learn the Aoud, but it seems impossible. Or I want to sing, but it seems impossible. And actually, oh, hi Soon, we have this amazing singer who's coming? Safa. We'll hear her soon. But anyway, I always tell my friends it's very easy to learn maqam.
Speaker 2:Maqam is like the ABCs of music. There are just seven or eight maqamat, arguably, but if you learn these seven maqamat, you can be a composer and you can create this beautiful music. And each maqqam it's like uh, here we're at art dubai, so it's uh, it's appropriate to talk about colors and a canvas. So to me as a composer, I think of maqam as colors. So, for example, maqam bayat is like, uh, I don't know, I think of it as orange. Maqam hijaz, green. Maqam sabar red. So you take all these different maqamat and when I go to write a song, I think about these maqamat and I and I throw these colors on the canvas and create this.
Speaker 1:You made it sound incredibly easy, so which? I do not think it actually is, but so you had an amazing experience where you had a listening um sort of I would say a listening session. Yes, right, and you explained to me which I would love to share with the audience, kind of like the importance of listening to music on quality speakers. But I, I personally cannot articulate this, so I need you to tell us more yes, so this is a very interesting story, so we have these, uh slide for it right, yes, so if you
Speaker 2:go to the next slide let's see what the next slide is. Yes, perfect, okay. So this next slide, uh, is a studio, uh, in New York City, in Dumbo. Does anyone know where Dumbo is, near the Brooklyn Bridge? Yes, very beautiful. And these speakers have the most incredible sound in the world, so much so that when Lady Gaga finishes her album, she goes there and plays her album on this speaker and invites just a select few people to listen to her album. She goes there and plays her album on this speaker and invites just a select few people to listen to her work. And if you're a jazz fan, christian McBride, very famous jazz bass player, he hosts listening sessions in this studio in Dumbo.
Speaker 2:And this speaker system was architected by my dear friend, jonathan Weiss, who's just a nut about perfection and sound. And Jonathan Weiss basically took very old RCA speakers from old movie theaters and parts of German airplanes and crazy things to basically create this, this beautiful system for listening. And he was drawn to me because he appreciated the, the beauty of microtonal music or, and he felt that on his speakers because they're so sensitive to particular sound. This is the best place to experience tarab, because tarab is all about those beautiful details in the music. And when I visited this place for the first time. It's very hard to get in. I'm not Lady Gaga. First time it's very hard to get in. You know, I'm not Lady Gaga, so it wasn't easy for me to get in. But I said I want to hear something beautiful in Arabic on these speakers. So when I was in Egypt many years ago, I bought a recording of Riyad al-Sumbati singing my favorite song of Umm Kalsoum. Singing my favorite song of Umm Kalsoum, awad Ta'ayni. Maybe you know this song. Maybe we can sing it together.
Speaker 3:Awad Ta'ayni Ala ru'iyak, awad Ta'ayni Ala ru'iyak Wa albi salim, salim.
Speaker 2:Anyway, I brought this record and apparently it wasn't clean enough. He had to run the record through this cleaning system that they use in universities to clean old archives. Then we placed the album on the system and I felt like Riyad Al-Sombati was sitting in front of me and singing. It was a great experience and I started to cry. I was like blown away by this sound.
Speaker 1:But can I ask you something? Yes, If it's specific to Arabic music, because of the fact that there are the micro-tones and then your friend Jason Weiss. Did he realize the impact that these speakers can have, and also the music, along with the correct sound system? Is it the combination of both or not necessarily?
Speaker 2:Yes, it's that beautiful combination of them both, and I actually wanted you to experience what I experienced there, so I have the recording of Riyad al-Sumbati. I don't know if you've heard it before, but we're going to play it now. I love you. I wish we could sit and listen to the whole thing, but there are other things happening tonight, so we'll continue with the talk. We'll get back to it. We'll get back to it.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, so I want to talk about your album cover. Oh, yes, because it is a work of art and this is the art of sound. And, honestly, I believe that yesterday, actually, sultan al-qasimi was here at a talk at huna lounge and I need you to tell us the story of how the album cover happened. And not just that, but how did you select the artist and how did you make this entire project come to life?
Speaker 2:Yes, so that's a great question. So about two and a half years ago, when we were about to release the album, I was in New York and it just so happened that my dear friend, his Excellency Sultan al-Qasimi, was visiting New York and I told him I don't know what to put on the cover, but one thing I know for sure I don't want to put my face on the cover, because I'm going to be showing this album to everyone. I'm going to get tired of seeing my face. I want something really beautiful. And Sultan was the perfect person to ask, because the collection of artworks in his mind, besides from his personal collection or the Barjil collection, is amazing and way beyond anything I could imagine. So he we were sitting having coffee together and he thought for a second. He said you know, there's a work of Jawad Salim that's currently in Moscow. This, he said you know, there's a work of jawad salim that's currently in moscow. Uh, this would be perfect because there's someone playing the oud and you know, for this work of my album, I composed everything on the oud and then it expanded from there. So I love this idea. So he called his colleague named Olga Navadova, who's a researcher who's in and out of Moscow and she said this work is currently in the Museum of the Orient and it's owned by the government and I have a high res version. I can send it to you, but you can't share it. She sent us the Lauha and we were both amazed and we discovered that this is actually the version she sent us. The high-res color version didn't exist anywhere else other than with Olga Navidova. We Googled it. We only found one in black and white and then eventually we worked very hard to get the rights to this work and to have it released with my album. And when my album was released it was the first time in 70 years the first time in 70 years that this painting was seen in public in color and really in public in general, because in Google you had to go to the third page to finally in public in color and really in public in general, because in google you had to go to like the third page to finally see it in black and white. So it was a really beautiful thing and I'm very honored that my the cover of my album is graced with this painting and it's called uh in the presence of the calife.
Speaker 2:And what I really love about this work is it's uh, it's oud player in the middle, which is like the inspiration of Arabic music, all the greatest. We just heard Riyad al-Sumbati. He's composing on the oud. The oud is the source, and then you have these beautiful musicians around him. You have this female musician on the kamanche, so it's a progressive idea, especially in the time when Jawad Salim I think it was in the 40s or 50s, of course, and we talked about Tarab and ecstasy and getting high on the music. So look at this guy, look how much he's the guy on the right. He's my favorite guy actually. He seems like no, actually he's having fun. It's a huge honor. And just earlier today they had a whole conversation about Jawad Salim in a new book that was published about Jawad Salim and his life.
Speaker 1:Yes, and his work, yes. So I want to go back to New York and where this all started for you. You've toured the world with your music and I mean only in this past month you've been to over 10 countries, you told me, and I just want to know kind of the reception to a sound like this, a new sound in the Arabic kind of world. Everyone is so used to hearing the same type of music kind of world. Everyone is so used to hearing the same type of music. And just how did you manage to kind of break out of that sort of replaying the same songs and introduce people to something new and have them not only like, not only accept it, but also enjoy it? Because I believe you're having a show at the Met very soon, which of course means that the reception has been very positive. So can you tell us how did people react at the beginning?
Speaker 2:Yes, well, you know I'm doing something very, you know, I guess, daring for our industry. You know, like in the Arabic music industry kind of things are done in a certain way and because I'm based in New York, I kind of just do my own thing and I don't really know what's going on actually over here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is a good point. So you're kind of, because Faraj does not live kind of in the Middle East, but you're in and out. So I believe that the idea that you do live in New York allows you to kind of delve in with more gumption.
Speaker 2:But you know what's actually really cool? We have one of my favorite musicians and producers in the region here, arijan, and I'm so honored to have him here and it's like a nice coincidence really, because he's one of the few producers today that's really also breaking the rules and based in the region and his compositions and his work are really amazing. And, yeah, it's an honor to have you here. And you know, what I'm doing in New York is I'm using the tools that I have around me and I'm using the things that can make me different around me and I'm using the things that can make me different.
Speaker 2:So, like here in the Middle East, it's hard to find afro-cuban pianist who grew up in Cuba and spent his whole life there and then worked the hustle of the New York jazz scene and then and now I'm bringing him to play a new culture, arabic music. So it's these kind of things create a new sound, which I think is very important in production, to create something new. You know me and Jonathan Weiss, who created the sound system that we were talking about before. We always talk about how music is about new ideas and not copying the past, and so the more we see of this in the region. I think the greater music will develop and the more our beautiful tradition of Maqam and Arabic music will evolve. And my album is just an effort towards this, a humble effort towards this, and yeah, I hope that answers the question.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that. I do want to know. Definitely the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is a major, obviously major thing that you are actually going to perform there. How did this performance come about? And you said that you're bringing together more than one musician. Is this a first time, is it kind of a new concept? But can you tell us a little bit more about?
Speaker 2:it yes.
Speaker 1:So you can go to the next slide.
Speaker 2:Let's do that first. Okay, so this is the poster for my concert in New York. It's at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They have a beautiful opera house inside the museum and basically it was all inspired from that previous work that you heard of mine. That was in the Damascus Room, which is inside the museum, and it's a set of compositions that I wrote with Western and Eastern orchestration that mix my own compositions with Qudud Halabiya and Mouashahat, so you'll hear a work of mine and then you'll hear something Qud Halabi, then a work of mine, then Mouashah, and the idea is to create a contrast between our beloved traditions in Syria and new music in the Tarab genre.
Speaker 2:And something interesting the name of the concert is Dimash Quman, which means, like Dimash Q, who are you to me? Dimash Quman? Well, qasida. It's asking the audience what does Damascus mean to you. It's asking the audience what does Damascus mean to you, and it's actually based on a Persian composition. My dear friend from Iran is here and it's based on a composition from Humayun Shajarian where he sings, and I'm going to sing you the Shajarian version and then I'm going to sing for you the Arabic version I composed. You speak Farsi as well. Do we have Farsi speakers or Persians in the audience. So it goes like this. It goes in Farsi, and forgive my pronunciation.
Speaker 3:It goes Sahar. Yes, in Arabic.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you. So we spoke about the beginning, we spoke about the process and your album, as well as this upcoming concert in New York at the Met. I would love to know, faraj Abiyad, what is next for you other than this and what do you hope actually to kind of show young musicians what is possible, because you may have very talented musicians out there and they may think that they need to stay in that box of I can't exit this space of just playing other people's music, so do you have any advice on that?
Speaker 2:Yes, I think that you know, the more we make efforts, those of us in a position of composing or producing, the more we make efforts to break outside of the traditions, the more it's going to challenge the system and people are going to start by osmosis, start creating and it'll inspire younger artists. And already people approach me sometimes and they say oh, I love how you composed this poem. I composed my own. A friend of mine wrote a poem and I composed it. Can you listen to it, faraj? So already this is happening and, yeah, maybe we can continue with some live music.
Speaker 1:Yes, I agree. What do you think? I think so too, so thank you. I want to thank Faraj so much for his time. Thank you everyone, and I would love to let you all know that we're just going to record a little bit of the live music and I suppose you'll go on for as much as you're inspired.
Speaker 2:We're going to play some music songs that you know, so please sing along.
Speaker 1:Don't be shy, feel free to clap and enjoy. Thank you so much, everyone. Thank you for your time. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, enjoy. Thank you so much, everyone.
Speaker 1:Thank you for your time, thank you, thank you. Thank you for listening. Make sure to follow at the curation pod as well as at huna living on instagram to stay updated on future. Huna talkss as well as everything art, culture and curated living.