Ahmad is an Egyptian singer/songwriter and producer. He was born and raised within a family of musicians who taught him many aspects of traditional Egyptian music. After receiving his Bachelor’s degree from the higher institute of Arabic music in Cairo, Ahmad got accepted into Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA to learn about music production and arrangement. During his experience in the United States, Ahmad had the honor of performing next to world-renowned artists such as Carole King and Jason Mraz. He also had the honor of performing one of his original songs at the prestigious Boston Symphony Hall accompanied by the famed Boston Pops Orchestra. 

أحمد علي الحجار، مطرب وملحن وموزع موسيقي. ولد ونشأ في بيت فني عريق. علمه جده إبراهيم الحجار الكثير من أصول وقواعد الغناء العربي الأصيل. بعد تخرجه من المعهد العالي للموسيقى العربية، التحق بجامعة بيركلي للموسيقى المعاصرة بالولايات المتحدة الامريكية لدراسة التوزيع الموسيقي والإنتاج الفني. خلال رحلته بالولايات المتحدة، نال أحمد فرصة الغناء بجانب نجوم عالميين مثل كارول كينج وچیسون مراز. ايضاً نال فرصة غناء احدى اغانيه الخاصة في قاعة "سيمفوني" العريقة بمدينة بوسطن بمصاحبة اوركسترا "بوسطن بوبس"، احدى اهم فرق الاوكسترا بالعالم.

Suad Bushnaq is a prolific, musically multilingual film and concert composer whose music has been hailed as 'reflective and touching' (BBC The Arts Hour), 'rich and accessible' (Klarafestival, Belgium), and 'beautiful as the sadness of the night and the joy of the daybreak (Arab music legend Marcel Khalifeh, on her piece 'The Road to Jenin').

Bushnaq has composed short and feature length film scores for a number of award-winning filmmakers. Her music has been heard at prestigious festivals including the Dubai, Seattle, and Edinburgh International Film Festivals to name a few, earning critical acclaim.

Her concert music has been performed in Europe, Canada, the United States, and the Middle East, and is listened to internationally. It includes works for solo, ensemble, choir, orchestra, and electroacoustics. Her orchestral works include a commission by 'ensemble mini' to create an Arabic-infused arrangement of Bartók's Rumänische Orchestertanz, as well as her Hakawaty (The Storyteller) Suite for Orchestra; an original composition of which select movements were performed by the Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra to sold-out shows at the Berlin Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Berlin, Malmö Live Konserthus, in addition to the BOZAR along with the National Orchestra of Belgium. Her music has also been performed by the Orquesta Ritornello, the Friedenauer Kammerensemble, and will be performed by the reputable Vermont Symphony Orchestra in December 2017. It is worth mentioning that Bushnaq is the one who orchestrates all of her compositions. Her discography includes Thoughts, From the Heart, and the soundtrack album for The Curve. 

An Arab-Canadian born to a Syrian mother and a Bosnian-Palestinian father, Bushnaq is one of a handful of Arab women composers in the world. She earned an entrance scholarship award from the world-renowned music composition program at Canada's top music school, McGill University, where she completed a Bachelor in Music Composition ('09). She is a member of both the Screen Composers Guild of Canada and the Alliance for Women Film Composers, and completed four years of her music education at the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus, Syria.

In a dark kitchen in the middle of a sweaty night in Las Vegas, all 6’4” of Dan Reynolds is hunched over a laptop, slapping beats on the table and crooning lyrics into a tiny microphone. Before long, he and the other three members of indie rock band Imagine Dragons would be playing “It’s Time,” that same laptop-demo-turned-supersized-anthem, from the roof of a parking garage to a wave of thousands of screaming fans. This song title to the single from their 2012 debut KidInaKorner/Interscope release “Continued Silence EP” is an all too apt descriptor of the band’s hard-earned success—but it’s also emblematic of the deep-seated anxiety Reynolds and the rest of the band experienced leaving behind any realistic expectation of a normal job to do the thing they love most.

A third-generation Las Vegas native, Reynolds is no stranger to the adage “the house always wins,” choosing to pave his musical career with a near obsessive work ethic and hundreds of unused demos rather than roll the dice with the first songs that sprung from his mouth. It’s no surprise, then, that he was drawn to guitarist Wayne Sermon, another founding member of Imagine Dragons. Having practically grown up in a recording studio and graduated Berklee College of Music, Wayne had been practicing his guitar through meals and other socially inappropriate situations as long as he could remember; he challenged Dan in a way that was both uncomfortable and exactly what they both needed. When they began writing songs together and recognized something special was happening, Wayne called up his Berklee friend Ben McKee, who promptly dropped out of school with only a few credits left, moving across the country to play bass for the band. This sort of reckless/genius behavior is typical for Ben, who has an uncanny penchant for spicy food and a suitcase full of unbelievable road stories. More recently, the band was joined by drummer Daniel Platzman, another Bostonian schoolmate who seems way too nice to be playing rock and roll until you actually see him in action.

Several tours and three self-released EPs later, Imagine Dragons had made a serious name for itself, particularly in the west coast circuit. Although their songs vary from nearly whimsical and light to brooding and powerful, listeners are drawn to the inherent honesty in the music. The only rule of thumb for the band, it seems, is to write from a true place; the result is songs that literally run the spectrum of human emotion. Attend a concert, and it becomes clear that the live performance of deeply personal songs has a real effect on people. And the band itself is not immune, as demonstrated when Dan literally passed out into the drum set during a finale song, sending cymbals and drum stands crashing while the rest of the band played on until the close.

Great songwriting is bound to be noticed eventually. As proof that the harder you work, the luckier you get, one of those people who noticed was Grammy winning producer Alex da Kid (Eminem, Rihanna). Alex and Dan began collaborating on projects, and soon the band had developed a relationship with Alex and his team. The alchemy resulting from Alex’s hip hop sensibilities and Imagine Dragons’ anthemic rock is nothing short of explosive. The byproduct of this creative collision is “Continued Silence,” a six song in-your-face sonic grenade that breaks musical boundaries and yet is strangely relatable by its improbably diverse audience.

Despite it all, on any given day when they aren’t on the road playing shows, you can still find Imagine Dragons huddled away in a rehearsal room somewhere, banging out song after song in search of the next perfect track. Like most things in Vegas, the band is angled at going big or going bust. For the sake of those who love great music, we hope it’s the former.

لكم قيمكم، ولنا الحب. لكم عاداتكم، ولنا الموسيقى. لكم تقاليدكم، ولنا المستقبل

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