I have a BFA in music composition and performance from FSU and an MFA for the same from CalArts. Many of my compositions have helped film, theater, and dance productions win awards, including two grand prizes and one "Best Score" award from Christopher Coppola's annual PAH Film Festival. I compose for both chamber ensembles and fixed media. I record a lot the instruments myself, including an array of beloved SWANA hand drums.
I'm a published speculative fiction author and experienced tech writer. As of 2022, my debut decolonial sci-fi noir is currently under consideration by several literary agents and one publisher. I set my Arab-futurist novel in Latakia, Syria because it's one of my favorite cities in the country, and maybe the world. It deals with the benefits and dangers of surveillance, automation, and A.I. from a technically informed perspective.
I have over 160,000 combined followers on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms. It's an amazing community made up of people both from the SWANA diaspora and those who are interested in its history, culture, and current events. My content has also been featured on Al-Jazeera.
After years of solo and collaborative music making for fun, I switched from biochemistry to music composition and vocal performance and have never looked back. During this time I sang, played clarinet, drums, concert percussion, jazz trumpet, and various electronics in multiple touring, marching, and concert bands. I scored 11 short films and 3 dance productions, including one master's thesis. Upon graduation, I packed all my belongings into a tiny Honda Civic and drove across the country to Los Angeles.
I worked many jobs both hourly and contracted, including as a runner and then data operator for feature post production at EFILM, and then as a recording engineer for the Boat Studio with the Dust Brothers. All the while, I was scoring films and performing live-looping original music, until eventually I hunkered down in my studio to do nothing but write.
During this time I started my record label and released my first album on it. I wrote several novels, all of which got shelved, and finally a rock musical called Lunatic Sun. Using the materials produced during this time, I applied and was accepted to California Institute of the Arts.
I collaborated with over a hundred artists during my time at CalArts, and my scores for film, theater, and dance won several awards. Some awards include "Best Score" in Christopher Coppola's PAH Fest and Director's Choice at Santa Cruz Fringe, and the book based on my story for Lunatic Sun won the Paul Stephen Lim award thanks to a rewrite by Yichao Wang. I scored two films that have won Grand Prize in their competitions, and my music was featured in around 35 international festivals at such venues as the Lincoln Center, the Jacob Burns Film Center, the Getty Museum, the Alex Theater, REDCAT, and Sundance Shorts.
I performed in, stage managed, and music directed works funded by a CEC ArtsLink grant, the Castaic Days Civic Association, the REDCAT Association, the American Conservatory Theater, and The Industry LA Opera Company. The Industry in particular has been an honor to work with on any level, a company that has been nominated for the Pulitzer prize and awarded a MacArthur genius grant. My YouTube channel features original and cover songs sung, looped, and beatboxed, often in a single take, which has garnered over 100,000 views. My essays and music reviews have been featured on eHow, the Louisville Music News, and Spectropol Records, and have appeared on the front page of reddit more than once.
I composed a chamber opera based on the poetry and life of my Syrian grandfather, Ali al-Jundi. I also scored the immersive play "On Death" by Wild Art Group in 2019. I wrote a novel during lockdown, acquired an agent, and several publishers are considering my debut decolonial speculative fiction novel, an Arab-futurist noir set in Latakia, Syria. I converted my RAV4 hybrid into a camper and drove around the country for a few years, hiked a lot, played a lot of darbuka, and eventually landed in Philly for a brief stint.
Having recently landed in NYC, I'm enjoying the pizza, the bagels, the night life, the culture. It's a big little town here, and I have the opportunity to play drums, walk in the parks, and just generally enjoy one of the coolest cities in the world. I am still composing, still writing prose and plays, still consulting and contracting for social media, and recently became the host of the Tech For Palestine monthly Roundtable.
