Simon Shaheen was born the son of a composer in northern Galilee. A Palestinian, Shaheen grew up in Israel, in the village of Tarshiha. He went on to study music and literature in Haifa and Jerusalem before coming to New York to attend the Manhattan School of Music and Columbia Universtity in 1980. His American passport allowed him to travel and play in Arab countries for the first time, a satisfying experience, and one that soon establish him as one of the great instrumentalists in Arabic music today.

Shaheen concentrated his recording and performing career in the United States. He began performing solo and small group concerts with the World Music Institute in New York, and other cultural organizations in American cities and universities. Shaheen's mastery on both oud and violin was evident even to those who knew nothing about the music's venerable roots, and his audience grew steadily. "The oud is considered like the piano in the west," Shaheen told Afropop in 1995. "It's the instrument that composers use when they work with musical ideas." At the time, Shaheen saw himself on a mission to raise awareness about Arab world music in the United States. He formed his own classical music group, the Near Eastern Music Ensemble, and made two landmark recordings, The Music of Mohamed Abdel Wahab (Axiom 1990) and Turath (CMP 1991), a collection of Middle Eastern master works.

Inevitably, a musician of Shaheen's caliber received many invitations to collaborate with artists in other genres. "Living in New York, you can't avoid fusion," he said back in 1995. "But it is sad in one way that you hear so much fusion music of very poor quality. It's a lost formula in which musicians can do anything. There is no structure; there is no concept. Just mix things together. It's what we call a Turkish salad, like putting more than fifteen different vegetables together." Shaheen had mixed feelings about his participation in Bill Laswell's 1994 Hallucination Engine project. But gradually, he found his footing in experimental circles. His one-on-one, improvised recording with Indian classical guitarist Viswa Mohan Bhatt, Saltanah was more satisfying. He said, "We just spoke for a few minutes about the mode, and then we started to play. It was very authentic, very powerful, very creative."

It was just a matter of time before Shaheen formed his own fusion-oriented group. The result is Qantara, which means "arch." Shortly after Qantara appeared in Las Vegas in the historic "Two Tenors of Arabic Music" concert in 2000, he spoke to Afropop about his new project. "It reflects living in New York," Shaheen said recently, "where you have so many different people from different parts of the world with different missions and ideas, who meet in one place. Eventually they have to hear one another and work together. Of course, I'm known to be a traditional, classical Arabic musician. On the other hand, I have started to collaborate with American jazz musicians and musicians from Europe, Africa, and South America. I've tried to come up with a formula that is original, interesting musically, but not harming the roots. So the qantara is a symbol of something that holds different things together, and when you go through it, you don't know what to expect inside. It's like a new world. You might see a garden with this beautiful little pool with of water. In our case, you go through it and you see this collaboration of different musicians."

Later that year, Shaheen directed the Arabic string section that backed Sting and Cheb Mami at the Grammy Awards, and Qantara opened for Sting at Jones Beach. Qantara recorded its debut release, Blue Flame, in five days in early 2001, on a farm in Pennsylvania, away from the hassles and distractions of the big cities where most of the musicians live. The players come from radically different musical and personal backgrounds. Simon's brother Najib shares the family's Middle Eastern roots, and also conservatory training. Bassam Saba, who plays the nay flute, and Ali Jihad Racy, who plays buzuq, are also classically trained Arabic musicians now living in the U.S.. Then there are French and American jazz musicians, a Latin American percussionist, and even a couple of pop music luminaries--percussion maverick Jamie Haddad, who plays in Paul Simon's current band, and Steve Stevens, who plays guitar for Billy Idol. The album has been acclaimed as a masterpiece. It clearly sets a new benchmark for Arabic crossover music. Perhaps more importantly, Shaheen himself liked the result. "Everybody was there," he said afterwards. "We ate together. We slept in the same place. We were together all the time. It really felt good, and I think it really shows in the recording. I get this feel of like family musicians playing together. I love that." Even before the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Shaheen expressed a determination not to allow global politics to distract him from his mission to bring Arab world music to Americans. "I cannot think that this will be a barrier," he said. "I cannot think this way. Otherwise, I am not living with myself. I don't have my own world, my own personality and character." Speaking on Afropop Worldwide since September 11, Shaheen reaffirmed his determination to move forward, despite global calamity. Audiences and reviewers agree that his concerts with Qantara mean more than ever in today's uncertain climate.

Contributed by: Banning Eyre