Death of Syrian Composer Nouri Iskander

The Syrian Ministry of Culture and the Higher Institute of Music mourned the global composer Nouri Iskander today, Monday, at the age of 85. Nouri Iskander was born in 1938 and studied music at a young age under the Russian musician Mikhail Pozirenko. After obtaining his high school diploma, he traveled to Egypt to earn a degree in music education from Cairo in 1964 and then returned to Aleppo to teach music. Throughout his rich artistic career, which spanned over 60 years, Iskander worked on translating the Syrian oral music heritage into aural language and preserving it from extinction. He also sought to create a musical intellectual dialogue drawn from Syrian and Arab heritage, composing many significant works that emphasized the relationship between Eastern and Western music. In 2002, he composed the music for the Greek play "Bacchae" by Euripides, which he presented in several European countries. The Syrian National Symphony Orchestra continuously performs the works of the late composer Nouri Iskander in its diverse evening programs, and his compositions serve as rich academic material studied by students at the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus.