Abed Kobeissy

Abed Kobeissy is a musician based in Beirut. His work ranges from solo projects and collaborations to music composition for film, theater, and dance. Having taken the Levantine buzuq as his main tool of production, his music holds a local identity while being unapologetically rooted in the present, relying on the local urban soundscape as the main generator of its language and emotionality, while tackling subjects often related to family, and home.

He has received various composition commissions, such as The Berlin Biennale 2017, CTM Music Festival Berlin 2020, Irtijal/Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival’s commission 2021, and others. He is a resident composer with EMS Studios, Stockholm since 2017. He's also written several commissioned research in music and musicology.

In 2016 he co-founded the electro-acoustic duo Two or The Dragon with Beirut-based percussionist Ali Hout, with whom he released 2 albums, Prelude For The Triumphant Man (2017) and Dance Grooves For The Weary (2021). He co-founded the Lebanese-German beat-noise quartet Stellar Banger alongside Ali Hout, Joss Turnbull, and Pablo Giw, with whom he released the album Data Is (2021).

Kobeissy has performed his solo and collaboration works, as well as live compositions for performance arts in various festivals and events such as the Berlin International Film Festival, CTM Music Festival, Supersonic Int’l Music Festival, Donaueschingen Musiktage, Féstival d’Avignon, and other events worldwide.

He holds a Master’s degree in Advanced Studies on the semiotics of music in Arabic cinema, and has taught as a lecturer at the Lebanese American University.