Sahab, Salim

Classical Oriental | Lebanon + Egypt

Born in Palestine 1941, Salim Sahab is a famous Lebanese-born conductor and composer who moved to Egypt in 1981 and conducted the orchestra of Om Kolthoum among others.

Salim Sahab holds a diploma in orchestral conducting from the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory. He founded “The Beirut Ensemble for Arabic Music” in Beirut, then The National Arab Music Ensemble in Cairo, which obtained, two months after its foundation, a Golden Medal in Babel Festival (Iraq), and toured the USA and many Arab and European countries.

Salim Sahab has established the fundamental rules of collective singing in the school founded in Egypt by Abdelhalim Nouweira. His ensembles present songs from the classical Arabic repertoire in a “group singing” style, which has put back in taste many mouwashahat and adwar and other classical music forms.