Firas Zreik
Habibi Festival • Oct 13, 2022
Firas Zreik is a Palestinian Kanun player, composer, arranger, and educator based in New York City. Born in Haifa to a musical family, his mother, Amal Murkus, is an internationally renowned singer. He started playing music at an early age, when his talent quickly accelerated and gained local and then national reputation, after winning first prize at The Nazareth Competition for Musical Talents. At the age of 18 years old, Firas received a full presidential scholarship from Berklee College of Music - their most prestigious award, where he studied for five years, graduating with two bachelor degrees in Performance & Jazz Composition with high distinction.
Firas is the lead Kanun player and soloist for The National Arab Orchestra, which is among the finest worldwide in that genre, he’s also the lead Kanun player for legendary Oud virtuoso Simon Shaheen, as well as the musical director of Amal Murkus’s band, which he also recorded on her latest album, in addition to producing many of her recent songs. He has worked, recorded & performed with international artists from the highest caliber, such as Roger Waters, Shankar Mahadevan, Shreya Goshal, Simon Shaheen, Bassam Saba, Amal Murkus, Fabrizio Cassol, Amir Al-Saffar, Aynur Dogan, Raghu Dixit, Marwan Khoury, Elias Karam, Abeer Nehmeh and many more. In addition, he performed all over the United States, Europe & the Middle East, both as a Kanun player and as a musical director in some of the most prestigious venues and festivals such as Boston Symphony Hall, Lincoln Center, Carthage International Festival, Savannah Music Festival, Institut de Mont Arabe, Teatro Mediterraneo, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Smithsonian Museum, Palais des Congrès, Berklee Performance Center, The Jazz Gallery, Nuoro Jazz Festival and many more.
Zreik is an ambassador of Medinea Artists Network, a prestigious European music network that connects together highly acclaimed young musicians from all over the Mediterranean. In addition, Zreik is part of Translucent Borders, a NYU collective artistic research project that connects musicians, dancers and choreographers from different geographical locations to collaborate. As an educator, Zreik has given workshops and masterclasses at Tufts University, NYU, Berklee College of Music, The Arabic Music Retreat, Circle for World Arts and many more.