Aeham Ahmad grew up as a Palestinian refugee in the Syrian refugee camp Yarmouk in Damascus. From the age of five he learned to play the piano, first at the Conservatory in Damascus, and from 2006 to 2011 he studied at the musical faculty of the Baath University in Homs. Yarmouk had been fought over by various parties in the civil war since 2013. In the course of acts of war, siege and hunger, the population decimated from 150,000 to 16,000 in 2015. During this time, he transported his piano on a trailer or pick-up and performed on streets and public places. Videos of these performances, often with children as an audience, were shared on social networks and his story received international media coverage.
After the refugee camp was taken by the fighters of the „Islamic State“ in April 2015, they destroyed his piano during an inspection. In this situation, he decided to leave his home. He fled Yarmouk on August 2 and came to Germany via Izmir, Lesbos and the Balkan route in September 2015.
In 2015 he received the International Beethoven Prize for Human Rights, Peace, Freedom, Poverty Reduction and Inclusion, which was awarded for the first time in Bonn. He made his first appearances in Germany at a concert for refugees and volunteers in Munich in October 2015 as well as a benefit concert for the Bochum refugee aid together with the Bochum Symphony Orchestra. Since then he has played many concerts all over Europe and in Japan.
His autobiography “Und die Vögel werden singen” was published for the International Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2017. It has been translated into different languages being published in Great Britain, America, France, Italy and The Netherlands..
If you want to experience Aeham Ahmad live, you will find an overview with dates of concerts and readings here. And here you can find his CDs and books.