Firas Abou Fakher
Rudolstadt-Festival 2018
Rudolstadt-Festival 2018
Background information
BornLebanon
GenresAlternative rock, Indie
Occupation(s)
Member ofMashrou' Leila

Firas Abou Fakher (Arabic: فراس أبو فخر) is a Lebanese composer, musician, producer and writer. He is best known as a composer, guitarist, and keyboardist with indie rock band Mashrou' Leila[1][2] and the co-founder of Last Floor Productions.

Biography

Firas Abou Fakher was born on April 26, 1988, in Beirut to Lebanese/Venezuelan parents. His interest in music started at an early age and he taught himself to play guitar at the age of 13. While studying architecture at the American University of Beirut, Abou Fakher co-founded Mashrou' Leila as a reaction to the lack of quality Arabic Music.[3] He started learning the piano at age 20.[4] Abou Fakher is a multi-instrumentalist and currently plays guitar, keyboards, bass, and percussion.

Career

Mashrou' Leila

Abou Fakher is one of the founding members of Mashrou' Leila along with Hamed Sinno, Haig Papazian and Carl Gerges. He started playing guitar and composing songs with the band in 2008 and eventually started playing keyboard and bass after the departure of former members Omaya Malaeb and Ibrahim Badr.

In 2017 Abou Fakher taught a graduate workshop at the Hagop Kevorkian Institute for Near Eastern Studies at NYU as part of Mashrou' Leila.[5]

Abou Fakher has been featured on the cover of the Middle East editions of Rolling Stone and GQ Middle East as part of Mashrou' Leila.[6][7]

Last Floor Productions

In late 2019, he co-founded Last Floor Productions with two longtime friends, writer and Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts screenwriting professor Daniel Habib and writer Nasri Atallah.[8] Last Floor Productions is focused on the creation of genre film & television, centered on telling stories about Arabs around the world.[9] The company's first production, Al Shak (Doubt),[10] was written, shot and released entirely during the early phase of the coronavirus lockdown of 2020.[11] It was produced as a Shahid Original for the leading streaming service launched by MBC Group. Last Floor Productions second series, Fixer, was released later the same year. Both series were co-created, co-executive produced and scored by Abou Fakher.

Independent work

Firas Abou Fakher has given talks and lectures as a composer and designer at ING Creatives[12][13] and has received the Areen Projects Award for Excellence in Architecture and the Omrania CSBE award.[14][15]

He has scored several films, 'Kaleidoscope" by Lebanese director Dania Bdeir in 2014 which received numerous awards[16][17] and most recently 'LOVE' by Lebanese Director Henri Bassil which won the 'Best Narrative Short Film' Award at the Moscow Short Film Festival in 2019.[18]

In 2019 Abou Fakher performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of British artist Oliver Beer's Vessel Orchestra Exhibition[19] alongside several notable artists including John Zorn, Nico Muhly and several others.[20]

Abou Fakher composed the music and sound design for the VR experience AVRA,[21] an installation experimenting with sensory virtual reality.[22]

References

  1. ↑ Egypt Independent: The obsessions of Mashrou Leila
  2. ↑ Dazed (2019-05-22). "A day with Mashrou' Leila, the new face of Middle Eastern pop music". Dazed. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  3. ↑ The Guardian: Mashrou' Leila: the Lebanese band changing the tune of Arab politics
  4. ↑ "Firas Abou Fakher: The Mashrou' Leila Interview (Part 2 of 2)". Music Makes You Think. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  5. ↑ "Mashrou Leila at NYU".
  6. ↑ Alarabiya English: Rolling Stone Mideast choose first regional artists for cover
  7. ↑ Mashrou' Leila: GQ Middle East's November Cover Stars
  8. ↑ Khalaf, Coletter (August 5, 2020). "Un trio libanais qui veut innover sur le petit écran (in French)". L’Orient Le Jour. Retrieved May 9, 2021.
  9. ↑ Badih, Samia (June 30, 2020). "Everything happened through a screen': How three friends created an entire TV show while housebound". The National. Retrieved May 9, 2021.
  10. ↑ Doubt (2020) IMDb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12418118/ratings?ref_=tturv_ql_4
  11. ↑ The Homemade Music of 'Al Shak': From Soundtrack to Spotify Playlist
  12. ↑ Creatives, -ING. "Firas Abou Fakher ‹ ING Creatives 2019". www.ingcreatives.com. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  13. ↑ Kentro, Art. "Firas Abou Fakher talks stage designing and Mashrou Leila". ArtKentro. Archived from the original on 2023-09-01. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  14. ↑ "Award-Winning Projects, 2011". Omrania | CSBE award -. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
  15. ↑ "Areen Projects Award for Excellence In Architecture and Graphic Design". www.aub.edu.lb. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  16. ↑ "Canada International Film Festival | Screenplay Contest - 2014 Winners". www.canadafilmfestival.com. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  17. ↑ "Mexico International Film Festival | Mexico Film Festivals - 2014 Winners". www.mexicofilmfestival.com. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  18. ↑ "MOSCOW SHORTS – MAY 2019 AWARDS – Moscow Shorts". Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  19. ↑ Walls, Seth Colter (2019-07-16). "He Turned the Met Museum's Collection Into an Orchestra". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-08-13.
  20. ↑ "Oliver Beer Vessel Orchestra".
  21. ↑ "AVRA Pop-Up VR Playroom". AVRA Pop-Up VR Playroom. Retrieved 2019-08-13.
  22. ↑ "AVRA". www.nourmalaeb.com. Retrieved 2019-08-13.
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