“Creation was accompanied by sound and Creation was transformed into pulsating life when that accompanying sound was converted to music
~ Walid Gholmieh
Dr. Walid Georges Gholmieh was the director of Le Conservatoire Libanais National Supérieur de Musique or The Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music. He was considered one of the most prominent Middle-Eastern conductors and composers.
Born in Marjeyoun in 1938, Lebanon, he initially studied Mathematics at the American University of Beirut before dedicating his education and life to music.
He was president of the board of The Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music and that since 1991. He also founded both the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra and the Lebanese National Arabic Oriental Orchestra in 2000.
Under his leadership, The Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra was able to prove itself both locally and internationally by giving more than 60 performances in little over than 2 years. These included an international repertoire by world-renowned classic music composers.
More recently, Dr. Gholmieh had lead The Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra at Baalbeck International Festival as well as The Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music in a enchanting evening of Arabic music classics at the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation annual festival.
Dr. Walid Gholmieh was mostly known to the general public through his years as head of the panel of judges on the very popular Lebanese talent show “Studio El Fann” that saw budding stars like Majeda el Roumy, Wael Kfoury, Nawal Zoghbi and many more and was credited for launching the careers of many Lebanese and Arab artists.
One of Dr. Gholmieh composition was the Iraqi National Anthem, ”Ardul Rurataini Watan“ – Land of the two rivers- that was officially adopted from 1979 until the upheavals in the country in early 2000. He has also co- authored a book: “The Theory of Oriental Arabic Music”.
Walid Gholmieh, was featured on the latest album by Damon Albarn’s virtual band, Gorillaz. The album, ‘Plastic Beach,’ was released on March 9 2010, with a track called White Flag.
Walid Gholmieh passed away on Tuesday June 7th, 2011 after a long struggle with cancer.
Dubbed “The Oprah of Lebanon” by the New York Times, Joumana Haddad prompts Lebanon yet again on the avant-garde scene. Why? Because she is an angry Arab woman and she says so in her latest book “I killed Sheherazade”. After all her controversial write-ups and her over-the-edge erotic magazine Jasad –that alone earned her the title of most hated woman in the Arab world!-, Joumana Haddad had to go further with tackling the issue of fundamentalism, not only in the Arab world where it’s so obvious but also in the western world where implications of power and sex have had notorious echoes lately. But back to the Arab world and the veil and the burqa, back to the sectarianism and its bigots, back to years of silent humiliation and segregation… here is a woman who voices courageously what other Arab women think, starting from the superficially emancipated Lebanese to other hounded women in neighboring countries… If killing Sheherazade will help make the change then let’s do it 1001 times over… The book is on sale now…
