National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

Simon Shaheen is a virtuoso and master of traditional Arab music. Shaheen was born in the village of Tarshiha in the upper Galilee, and four years later, his family moved to Haifa. Haifa is the only large city in historic Palestine and proper Israel that includes a mix of Palestinians and Jews with a population of 450,000, amongst which 55- or 60,000 are Arabs or Palestinians. There he received an excellent education in the centuries-old tradition of Arabic classical music.

Today he lives in New York City, and is one of the most well-known Arab musicians working in the United States. —Courtesy Calabash Music