Nizar Rohana

Nizar Rohana is an Israeli-born Palestinian oud player. He was born in the village of Isfiya on Mount Carmel in 1975, and began playing music while still very young. He discovered the oud when he was 15, and in 1996 he moved to Jerusalem to study. In 2001 he was awarded a Bachelor of Music and Arts (specialisms in oud performance and Musicology) from the Arabic Music Department of the Jerusalem Academy for Music and Dance and the Musicology Department of the Hebrew University. For some time he then focused his work on the music of the great Egyptian composer Muhammad Al-Qasabji, completing his Master’s degree in 2006.

Today, Nizar is a prominent oud player on the Palestinian music scene and internationally. He has gained wide experience on the stage as a soloist and within a range of groups, playing traditional, modern, experimental and world music. During the last twelve years he has performed in prestigious venues in countries such as Japan, Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, the USA and in Europe.

Nizar launched his first album "Sard" (Narration) in May 2008. Here he maintains an idiomatic language for the oud, yet achieves refreshing expressions and rhythms through dialogues with double bass, qanoun and percussion.

Between 2000 and 2007 Nizar worked as one of the main oud teachers at the Edward Said National Conservatory in Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Bethlehem. He was the Academic Director of the Jerusalem branch in 2003 and 2005 and also the Deputy of Academic Affairs in the academic year 2006-2007.

His docARTES doctoral defense took place on December 15, 2021 at Leiden University.