User:Zuher Amr

Rebal Alkhodari (In Arabic: ريبال الخضري) (born November 18, 1988) is a Syrian singer, composer, producer and oud player, raised between his homeland, Egypt and Lebanon. He is considered as a Baritone - countertenor voice, full of oriental techniques and ornaments, well-honed skills as a performer and major experience. The German Journalist Robert Dotzauer has describe his voice in his article (Zeischen Leid und Leidenschaft) by his " The exotic magic of the famous Syrian vocal virtuoso Rebal Alkhodari is decorated in an oriental way"

After the war broke out in Syria in 2011, Rebal was in jail for no clear reason for a while for no reason. Later in the same year, he was forced to leave his Homeland and decided to start a new life, choosing to embrace all places and all people as his own home.

Rebel’s songs talk generally about love and society using the historical Arabic poems in some of them. Although his music is a mix of traditional with pop and classical music, Rebal is open to exploring more and more music which can give his songs special flavor.

Rebal released three albums: Shwayyet Haki  (2009), Tawshih (2011) and  Political poems (2014). He also has performed more than 300 concerts, in more than 44 countries., appearing in opera houses around the world including Berlin (Deutscheoper), Dubai opera house , Philharmonie de Paris , Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and obviously, Damascus opera house.

Besides his work as a singer, Rebal composes songs for solos and choirs, and have conducted several Arabic choirs, as The National Choir of the Jordanian conservatory and Amaan choir, which were driven by him to receive the best dynamic choir from the ChoirFest Middle East festival in Dubai opera house on 2017. On 2018, his work Zayed Al-kher was supposed to be performed on Dubai opera house during Choirfest medle east.

Rebal has performed with top international artists such as Catalan Grammy winner Jordi Savall, the only Arabic Grammy winner Fathy Salam, and never the last the famous German band Sarband under the supervision of Dr. Vladimir Ivanoff.

Musical education & Teaching
His musical training started at age six in the Asad music institute in his city (1999–2005). After graduating from the Higher institute for music and Drama (where he studied from 2005 to 2010). Rebal specialized in Arabic singing and oud playing.

After many years full of concerts and workshops, and under the direction of The American bluegrass fiddler and singer and musician Casey Driessen, Rebal has finished his master degree at the Berklee college of music in Valencia, Spain on 2019.

Ensembles and Projects
In 2008 he formed his first ensemble (known since 2010 as Tawshih Ensemble), together with his friends. The main aim of Tawshih is to find a new modern understanding for the Mwashahat music. With Tawshih, Rebal presented the Band first time in the opera house of Damascus  and Aleppo. Not to forget that he toured several times with the same band in Egypt, UAE, Lebanon,, Germany.

In 2011, he left Syria to Jordan, where he was teaching in the national music conservatory in Jordan - King Hussein Foundation. There, he found a new cappella choir under the supervision of the conservatory. The choir is called Ammon formerly. On 2014, the choir has become and independent association and the name changed to be Amaan choir. With Amaan, Rebal toured for many countries including Germany, France, Italy, UAE, Slovenia, Iceland, Cyprus, Netherland, Czech and Austria. The choir has won under Rebal's supervision the award of best choir dynamic in Choirfest middle east.

In 2016, he founded the well-known project Al-Qafila. By this project, Many musicians from all over the world join to practice, produce new music and tour with it along two weeks. The project is happening one time yearly and many well-known artists have joined the project as experts or ambassadors such as Tareq Aljundi, Gökesl Baktagir, Vladimir Ivanoff

More recently Alkhodari has performed as guest with several international and well-known groups. The list includes but is not limited to Sarband, Hesperion XXI, Orpheus XXI, Phoenix with the well-known German American Bass singer Joel Frederiksen, Babilon Orchestra in Berlin, The Syrian National orchestra , The Jordanian Orchestra.

Recordings
Rebal's discography includes more than 40 recordings were released within 4 Albums. Rebal's Albums were always recorded by his own label but distributed with another companies. His first Album "Shwayyet Haki" was granted the Cultural resources grant on 2008. His third Album "Political poems" has granted (AFAC association grant). The album was composed by the Syrian musicians and producer Basel Rajoub and written by the well-known poet Ahmed Matar and funded by the lebanese association. On 2020, Rebal released the new Album "Li Habibon" which was distributed world-wide through CD Baby.

In addition to his own albums, Rebal also has recorded one Album with the German band Sarband under the name "what the world needs now". The Album has been released by the German label Mussalience on 2019.

Personal life and political views
After 2011, Rebal has been arrested by the Syrian Regime because of his ideas and activities to support the freedom. Although Rebal didn't join the Syrian revolution with clear words, he withdraw his support to the Syrian Regime after couple of months which lead him to be arrested on 29th July 2011. Based on interview with him with Syria TV, Rebal decided after that to leave Syria completely and started again his life from Jordan. Although, Rebal left the any political activity, he stayed supporting all human activities for refugees and human rights such as The missing journey tour 2016 to collect money for refugees. Not to forget that he founded "Eye can see choir" on 2017, to help blinds children for better integration in the society.

Awards

 * 2008 - The second prize as best impromptu and virtuoso in Arabic countries by the 16th Arabic music festival in Cairo.
 * 2010 - The first prize as best improviser in " the nice voices festival" 2010 organized by Holy Spirit University of Kaslik.
 * 2016 - The patron award for his choir (Amaan choir) in Choirfest middle east Dubai- UAE
 * 2017 - Best choir dynamic for his choir (Amaan choir) in Choirfest middle east Dubai- UAE.

Discography
Full discography as published on his website:


 * 2009 "Shwayyet Haki" Album produced by Cultural resource association
 * 2011 "Tawshih Hadith" produced by his own label and distributed by Eka3.
 * 2013 " Political poems" Album produced by AFAC
 * 2014 " Ya Baiti" Single produced by his label
 * 2016 "Da'i Al-lawma" Single produced by his own label.
 * 2018 " Daftar Aile" Single produced by his own label.
 * 2019 "What the world needs now" with Sarband and Joel Frederiksen by the German label Museallience.
 * 2020 " Li Habion" Album produced by his own label and distributed by the American company CD-Baby.

Filmography And Video-clips
On 2010, Rebal adapted and performed the short songs for the well-known Syrian series "Takhet Sharki"  Produced by Claket media. The songs have been reproduced again on 2018 in live Joe show produced by The Arabic TV.

In addition, Rebal has released only two video clips based on his website:


 * 2016 - Da'i Al-lawma
 * 2018 - Daftar Aile

Teaching & Online
Beside of the performances and releases, Rebal is well-knows as an Arabic vocal teacher based on his experience in Arabic singing with the National music conservatory in Amman. As well, he joined Izif platform for online courses on 2011 and since that his online courses is the first to appear in the search engines. In addition, Rebal was invited to make workshops in Arabic singing several times with several associations such as the Tunisian music institution in Eldjim on 2014, Also, he was invited as Guest lecturer to Cologne University.