Al-Bustan's Arab Music Concert Series Presents: Composer Kareem Roustom

Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture is pleased to launch a concert series presenting a resident music ensemble performing classical Arab music repertoire that features a different guest soloist for each program. This month's guest artist is composer, Kareem Roustom.

Born in Syria, Kareem Roustom is an Emmy nominated composer who has composed music for film, television, the concert hall and album projects. Steeped in the musical traditions of the Arab Near East and trained in Western music, Roustom is a musically bi-lingual composer who has collaborated with a wide variety of artists ranging from the Philadelphia Orchestra to Shakira. An active composer of film music, he has scored a number of short and feature-length films, and his score for the PBS documentary “The Mosque in Morgantown” earned him an Emmy nomination in the 31st Annual News & Documentary Emmy awards. In June of 2010 Roustom was awarded a fellowship to the prestigious Sundance Film Composers Lab held annually at the Sundance Institute.

As a concert composer Roustom has been commissioned by groups such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Boston Children’s Chorus, clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and the Damascus Festival Chamber Ensemble, among others.

Led by Music Director Hanna Khoury, Al-Bustan's concert series ensemble brings together musicians of exceptional experience, providing opportunities to hear exemplary live Arab music on a regular basis in Philadelphia.

This concert series is made possible by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as part of its Knight Arts Challenge, with support from the Sparkplug Foundation, Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Wells Fargo Foundation, individual donors, and the Trinity Center for Urban Life.