FARAJ SULEIMAN

For the first time in Canada, internationally-acclaimed Palestinian composer Faraj Suleiman and his band will perform hits from “Better than Berlin” and his latest album “Upright Biano”, with lyrics written by Majd Kayyal, composed and sung by Suleiman — melodies and stories of Palestinian strangled dreams in the city of Haifa, musical images of love, frustration, and migration, in the shadow of colonialism and gentrification.

“These are songs of nostalgia to a city we have never left, songs about getting lost in streets we know by heart”.

Faraj’s music is strongly influenced by Arabic/Eastern melodies and rhythms. He often incorporates those scales and modalities in his compositions. In addition to being inspired by his Arabic culture, he is also influenced by Jazz traditions. As an Arab musician/pianist trained in classical music, he constantly searches for new forms of expression to equally appeal to his “Eastern” and “Western” listeners.

To date, Faraj has released a number of albums and musical projects such as : “Login”, “Three Steps”, “Mud”, “Opening of the Palestinian Museum”, “Al-Bashiq”, “Love in the Cloud”, “Once Upon a City”, “Love Without a Story”, “Toy Box” and his first songs album “Second Verse”, the recording of “London Jazz Festival 2019”, “Better than Berlin”(Songs album), “Faheem” – a songs album for children, and lately “Upright Biano”(Songs album).

He also composed music for theatre and award-winning films, including Ameen Nayfeh’s “200 Meters”, and most recently “”Alam” by Feras Khoury.