Bachar Zarkan

Bachar Zarkan (بشار زرقان: Arabic ) is a Syrian musician, singer, and actor known for his Sufi music.

Bachar Zarkan spent much of his childhood in the quarter of Bab al-Salam in Damascus. He was raised in a traditional and culturally stimulating environment characterized by popular and classical music and by religious rites of commemoration, such as 'al-Hadra' and 'al-Zikr'. When a teenager, he learned to play the ‘ud and was already attracted by artistic crossing experiences, notably with drama. His unending quest for creation enriched itself through his stay in France (1992-1997), his visits to several European countries and to the USA. Bachar Zarkan's theatrical experience started, in 1983, in the parts he played as both an actor and a singer in the play "Luka' Ben Luka'" written by the Palestinian author Emile Habibi, and directed by Walid Quwwatli. The latter asked him then to compose music for the poetic works of the play. That is when Zarkan started to question the relationship between music and a drama script, to question in the end the essence of a song. This quest led him to be involved in several musical trends and experiences, including political ones. However, in the middle of the eighties, his rediscovery of mystical poetry, which was already part of his childhood memory, saved him from the dominant musical repetition, and monotony of this time. Bachar Zarkan considered then that mystical poetry answered largely his expectations, ambitions, and concerns with music. Afterwards, when he studied the Sound Theater at the Pygmalion Studio in France (1996), his major aim was to deepen his understanding of the relationship between words, music, movement and rhythm. Now, he is interested in composing music for contemporary poetic texts that match the Sufi texts in their beauty and internal rhythm as well as in their meaning, such as the poems of Mahmud Darwish and Taher Riyad.

Bachar Zarkan participated in many international and Arabic festivals:

• Concert in Qasr al-Azm, Damascus, 1992
• Arab Club Festival, London, 1993
• Recital in Exeter, Great Britain, 1993
• Recital in Bielefield, Germany, 1994
• The Arab World Institute (IMA), Paris, France, 1994
• UNESCO Theatre, the Arab Club, New York, 1995
• The International Festivals of Jerash, Jordan 1993, 1995, 2000, 2004
• Abou Dhabi Festival, The Arab Emirates, 1994
• Assila Festival, Morocco, 1997
• The Madina Festival, Tunisia 2000, 2003
• Concert in Sama Theater, Damascus, 2001
• Al-Mutanabbi Festival, Switzerland (Zurich and Bern), 2005
• Sufi Festival, Amman, Jordan, 2008
• Mälmo Festival, Sweden 2008
• Music Show, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2008
• Festival The Spring of Culture, Bahrein, 2009
• Jordan Festival in Amman, 2009
• Literature Festival of Berlin, September 2009

• "Bahrain Spring of Culture". TimeOutBahrain.com. 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2010. 
• "Programme of the 9th international literature festival berlin" (PDF). Berline Festspiele. Retrieved 21 September 2010. 

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