Rahim AlHaj, virtuoso oud musician and composer, was born in Baghdad, Iraq and began playing the oud (the grandfather of all stringed instruments) at age nine. Early on, it was evident that he had a ...

Iraqi-American instrumentalist Rahim AlHaj was imprisoned and tortured for two years by Saddam Hussein’s forces in the early 1990s, but if you ask him about the most difficult time in his life, he’ll ...

Though wordless, the Baghdad-born oud player's music tells powerful stories about the blessedness and fragility of life. Ancestor to the lute and the guitar, the oud ‎is an ancient stringed instrument ...

Rahim AlHaj’s music can seem bleak at first. His 2017 album, Letters From Iraq, is a mournful meditation on the violence wrought by the U.S. military invasion of his home country. So it comes as ...

DEARBORN, Mich. >> Rahim AlHaj cried every time he read the letters of eight Iraqis sharing personal, harrowing tales of love, loss and hope in wartime since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Rather than ...

Meet Rahim AlHaj, oud mastermind and composer behind Little Earth (UR Music; September 28). On the album, a loose but poignant affiliation of musicians from a plethora of places and backgrounds tackle ...

Rahim Alhaj is a composer and musician from Baghdad. He was repeatedly imprisoned and tortured for speaking out under Saddam Hussein's regime. Alhaj fled his native country in 1991 — first going to ...

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Titled "Why," the song never mentioned Saddam Hussein by name, but Iraqis knew that the lyrics - which described injustice and an unlikable man - referred indirectly to their country's despotic leader ...

3 OH, MARY! Reveals Tour Dates and Cities For 2026-27 Amid the global coronavirus pandemic, the University of Chicago Presents and artists and presenters around the world continue to bring live music ...

Rahim AlHaj is keeping a 5,000-year-old musical tradition from the heart of Mesopotamia alive in Albuquerque. AlHaj, an Iraqi oud virtuoso, is a 2015 recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts ...

Ancestor to the lute and the guitar, the oud ‎is an ancient stringed instrument commonly played throughout the Middle East, North Africa and countries like Greece and Turkey. The oud has charmed ...