Omar Bashir was born in 1970 in Budapest, Hungary. He started playing Oud at 5, next to his father, Munir Bashir, the Iraqi virtuoso who first made the Oud a solo recital instrument and popularized it in the West. At 7, Omar joined the Baghdad Music and Ballet school. He would eventually become a teacher there and set up his own band of 24 musicians specialized in traditional Iraqi music. They performed regularly across Egypt, Russia, Turkey and many Arabic countries. He came back to Budapest in 1991 where he joined Franz Liszt Academy. Omar performed too as a solo artist and in duets with his father until Munir deceased in 1997 on the eve of a tour of North America. He is today the most brilliant Oud player we know, making a sparkling mix of traditional Arabic music with a jazz-like improvisation that got him comparisons to John Mac Laughlin and Al Di Meola.
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