Maestro Muhammed Qadri Dalal at the New York Oud Festival

Born in 1946 in Aleppo, Syria, Oud virtuoso and musicologist Muhammed Qadri Dalal has performed with most of the important traditional singers from the 70s on, such as Sabah Fakhri, Sabri Mudallal, and Adib al-Dayekh.  He is one of the most important figures of music in the Arab world.

An apprentice of Bakri al-Kurdi, Mr. Dalal is a composer, group leader, educator, music critic, and prolific scholar who has written extensively about traditional music and the musical figures influencing the tradition over time. 

Numerous traditional singers from Aleppo studied with him, and he wrote works for many singers from Syria and the Arab world, such as Omar Sarmini, Shadi Jameel, Abboud Bashir, and Ahmad Azraq from Aleppo, and Lotfi Boshnaq from Tunisia to name a few. He is considered to be an authority in the maqam tradition.

He toured with the al-Kindi Ensemble around the globe. He was the director of Sabah Fakhri Conservatory in Aleppo, Syria (2004-2009) and since 2013, he has been teaching as an Arab music professor at the Conservatory of Alexandria, Egypt.

He performed with SMPI's Takht al-Nagham in many concerts and in different states from New York to Florida to Washington D.C.

A native of Syria, Samer Ali is a versatile physician, violinist, oudist, composer, and the founder and artistic director of the Syrian Music Preservation Initiative. He has led Takht al-Nagham, SMPI's Arab chamber music ensemble, performing at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Samer began his musical journey at the age of eight, studying Western classical violin with Fawaz al-Ali and Ali Farran. He later underwent intensive training with Ali Mukhtar Babayev. In addition to this, he apprenticed with the esteemed musicologist Muhammad Qadri Dalal, while studying Arab classical violin with renowned musicians Simon Shaheen and Anwar Hariri.

In Damascus, he co-founded the Awj ensemble and has continued to perform in the U.S. with groups such as the Excelsior Symphony Orchestra and the National Arab Orchestra.

In the medical field, Samer earned his M.D. in Syria and currently works as a Pathologist and Assistant Professor at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, effectively balancing his passions for both medicine and music.

Building on the foundation of classical training at The Juilliard School, Jeremy’s percussive interests and abilities encompass a wide range of traditional and contemporary music styles from around the world. He performs regularly with Afro-Peruvian music group Festejation, Middle-Eastern fusion group Baklava Express, and global jazz quintet Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica. He is a live musical accompanist for modern dance classes at the Juilliard School, The Ailey School, and Steps on Broadway. He teaches drumming and rhythm training in-person and online from his studio in Manhattan. Jeremy is a dynamic performer and passionate teacher with the desire to share the beauty of rhythm with all.