Artist description From an electronic maverick of the 1940s to a skilled composer in standard, modern, classical-style works, Halim El-Dabh's music covers the entire range of the classical music experience.

Music Style Contemporary Classic to Opera to Early Electronic

Musical Influences Many

Similar Artists N/A

Artist History A native of Cairo, Egypt, El-Dabh studied with Aaron Copland and Irving Fine, and received two Guggenheim fellowships, two Fulbright fellowships and a Rockefeller fellowship, among many others. An early pioneer of electronic music, El-Dabh began sonic experiments in the 1940s, continuing his work in the 1950s and early 1960s at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. His electronic works feature a marriage of ancient instruments and archaic chanting and drumming combined with purely electronically-produced and modified sounds. Besides work in electronic music, El-Dabh has composed orchestral works, operas, chamber music, and ballets, collaborating on many occasions with choreographer Martha Graham. His music is performed throughout the world, and visitors to the Great Pyramid can experience his Sound and Lights of the Pyramids of Giza. El-Dabh is Emeritus University Professor at Kent State University, where he has served on the faculty since 1969.

Group Members Halim El-Dabh

Instruments Too many to list

Albums Number of recorded and commissioned works numbers in the 100s (if not 1000s). Please contact for a (not exactly completed but very long) list.

Press Reviews Wire November 2001, #214 Halim El-Dabh is something of a Zelig Figure. He was born in Egypt in 1921 and his early work anticipated the concepts of Pierre Schaeffer. John Cage and Aaron Copland admired his work and he also had encounters with Timothy Leary, Marilyn Monroe, Leopold Stokowski and even Ringo Starr. The accidental discovery of Native American folk music changed El-Dabh's perspective on composition, and the opening to Electric Fanfare sounds more akin to Alan Lomax's field recordings than to electronic music as we know it. Other pieces are more 'studio' based and Leiyla Visitations presents a vast electronic landscape with familiar Speech noises distorted just out of reach. An electronic maverick well worth checking out. TheStranger.com Reviews Halim El-Dabh's new CD - http://www.thestranger.com/2001-12-06/guide.html Banana Fish Issue Sixteen reviews Halim El-Dabh's latest work - http://www.midheaven.com/tedium/bananafish16/halim.html

Location Kent, Ohio - USA

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