Musik. Inspireret af Palmyra
Maher & Salam Duo spiller kompositioner af Maher Mahmoud og traditionel musik fra området omkring Palmyra. Maher Mahmoud og Salam Susu studerede musik sammen i Syrien, før krigen skilte dem ad. Flere år senere bragte musikken dem igen sammen i Danmark, hvor de siden har spillet bl.a. i The Syrian Expat Ensemble med andre syriske musikere bosiddende i Europa.
Vinterhaven. 20 min.
Salam Susu is a Syrian pianist. She was born in 1983. She started learning the piano at the age of four with an Armenian-Russian piano master. After that, she started playing classical concerts and studying the piano professionaly following methods of classical schools.
Salam studied English literature at Tishreen university in Latakia and graduated in 2004. At the same year she got back to music again, by studying the piano at The Musical-educational College in Homs and finished there in 2007. Later, she got her master’s degree in music education in 2015.
Salam worked mainly in teaching the piano to different varied ages, using many different methods, and worked at the same college she’s graduated from as a teacher of piano, musical theory, and ear training.
During the period she was teaching, she has made many self funded-workshops with handicap children, children with autism, pregnant women and teaching the music by playing for children under the age of five.
Salam played with many music groups and with accompany solo-musicians’ concerts.
She is interested in both classical, traditional and folk music.
in 2015 Salam left Syria, running away of the war. She finally arrived to Denmark walking the whole way seeking a new life there.
In Denmark, Salam started playing the harp, achieving here own project to combine a string-classical instrument with Arabic music, that includes micro tonality, by tuning the harp to fit the Arabic scales.
Her first participation in Denmark was in a project called Europe, with The Royal Danish Theatre and ’Black and White’ Theatre, by the director Christian Lolike, where she both acted and played the piano.
Since 2016 Salam started playing with different bands in and out of Denmark. Among others are: The Syrian Expat Ensemble, the multi cultural ensemble ‘Radiant Arcadia’, and in a duo together with the Syrian composer and oud player Maher Mahmoud.
Beside playing concert Salam did many workshops in Kindergartens in Copenhagen and other cities.
Salam is working now on a new project called Mosaic, which includes different female-musicians living in Denmark.
Maher Mahmoud is a Syrian composer and oudist. He was born in 1986 in Salamiya -a city in the middle of Syria- and lived in Damascus until 2012 when he briefly moved to Jordan. In 2013 Maher moved to Denmark, where he presently resides.
Maher started his musical education at the age of six by learning the Arabic oud. He graduated from The Higher Institute of Music in Damascus in 2010, where he studied the oud deeply and both Arabic and classical western music.
In 2019 Maher graduated from The Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark, where he studied at the Soloist-line (The Advanced Postgraduate Diploma) in rhythmic composition.
Maher has since 2005 been composing and arranging for several musical groups: big band, symphony orchestra, solo, various ensemble sizes, Arabic Takht and chamber orchestra. He is interested in world music and discovering new sounds on the oud and additionally, experimenting with different styles of contemporary music.
Since 2009, Maher has worked with different bands and artists in Denmark, UK and around Europe – among others are Damon Albarn and Brian Eno, Berlin Chamber Orchestra, Dunia Ensemble, The Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra, EU.Terpe Orchestra, Dicte, JSO Bremen-Nord Philharmonic Orchestra, The Orchestra of Syrian Musicians, RUM band, Blood-Sweat-Drum & Bass big band, S. Møller Big Band, Art Ensemble Syd, Listen! Trio, Nouri Iskandar String Quartet, Li Dine, Simon Spang-Hansen & Middle Earth, Jiraan, Grænseløs, Jovan Pavlovic Trio and many others.
Alongside, Maher is working on several projects, which range from Arabic, jazz and classical oriental music, and is starting a new network of Syrian professional musicians around Europe in collaboration with Danish musicians in Denmark, where he found The Syrian Expat Ensemble.
His debut album Mirage was released in 2010