Playing the Music of His People

Firas Zreik is a Palestine-born, New York-based composer and player of Kanun, a traditional Arabic string instrument.

Zreik has performed and recorded in varied styles, including Arabic Maqam and jazz, and collaborated with many international artists such as Residente, Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, Shreya Ghoshal, and others.

His debut EP "Solo" came out in 2021 and his most recent release is a 2023 full-length album called "Salute.”

Listen to the Episode

What you’ll hear:

Understanding the Kanun and the Maqam, the language of Arabic music
How colonization and racism show up in the music world
Growing up Palestinian and second-class citizen in Haifa and Galilee
The role of artists and activism in the Palestinian cause
Firas tackles the question of diaspora

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“I don't want to remind anyone of my humanity. It's not the good Palestinians with the instrument and the bad Palestinians with the rifle. This is not how you solve dehumanization. It's an issue of superiority, of white supremacy. It's on them to reinvent their agenda, ideologies, and way of looking at things.” – Firaz Zreik

Collaborating with Grammy winner Residente

In 2024, Firas Zreik collaborated with the Grammy-winning Puerto Rican artist Residente, Palestinian singer (and Firas’s mother) Amal Murkus, and Argentinian musician Leo Genovese on a song dedicated to the children of Gaza.

Listen to the song.