Musician Bishr Issa..a distinctive imprint in the world of choral singing and Syrian folklore

Tartous-Sana

The able musician Bishr Issa was able to revive the Syrian cultural heritage and spread joy and love in a new and different way with the Arjwan Choir, which he founded in 2015 and put his distinctive mark on spreading the culture of classical and choral art and the local Arab and international folklore, in addition to his other musical achievements.

Issa worked as a trumpet player in the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra from 2002 to 2015 with which he performed more than 30 concerts inside and outside Syria. 2013 and 2015 and participated with him in more than 60 choral concerts, including 8 concerts at the Syrian Opera House and his other concerts inside and outside Syria, such as Lebanon, Jordan, Algeria, UAE, Italy and Armenia.

Issa, who holds a master’s degree in Geotechnical Engineering from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Damascus University in 2008, holds a Bachelor’s degree in music, majoring in trumpet and minor on Oud from the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus in 2003. Concerts between 2008 and 2011, and Issa, who was born in Damascus in 1974, worked as a professor and lecturer for aesthetics, philosophy of art and music at the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus from 2009 to 2015. Harmony with its three choirs (children...young people...adults).

The choir includes more than 250 male and female singers from the age of 7 to 50 years from eight Syrian governorates. The war pushed them to come to Tartous, to be gathered by the Arjwan choir, which sings in more than 25 international languages, and Issa worked as a trainer in it with the academic pianist Shatha Tohme and a leader for him and his concerts inside and outside Syria.

In a statement to SANA reporter, he said, “His goal from its establishment is to introduce the choral culture in its contemporary sense to the artistic culture in the coast in particular and in Syria in general, explaining this concept, which depends on the collective singing of multi-voice and distributed harmoniously. While preserving the individual personality of each singer, he is considered an effective and influential voice in the production of joint artistic and creative work.”

Issa founded the Friends of Music Association in Tartous in 2016, which is a civil cultural association concerned with music and aims to spread serious Arab and Western classical music and the Syrian musical heritage. Christmas and New Year's period, and he also participated in many international concerts online during the closure period due to the Corona virus.

Issa won several awards, including the first place for the participation of the adult choir in the choir competition of the international festival “Together in the Twenty-First Century” which was held in Bulgaria in June last year, and the silver medal for his participation in the international choir that was held in July of last year as well. The Golden Olive Branch Award for his participation in the International Choir Theater Festival, which was held in 2019 in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Issa signed two choir twins, the first with the Greek choir Koaris in March of last year, and the second with the Venice Youth Orchestra in May this year.

Issa has been working in the field of composing and arranging music since 2006. He has many compositions and pieces, in addition to publications and lectures dealing with music affairs, which have been published in many local, Arab and international newspapers and websites. He is a member of the World Federation of Choral Music, the European Choir Association and the Arab Choral Network.

Fatima Hussain

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