Due to the changed customs regulations from July 1, 2021, you can only order the CDs and books via contact@aeham-ahmad.com within the EU. We can offer all CDs as downloads outside the EU.
The new CD „Aeham Ahmad Quintet – Experience“ is ready.
In his new project, Aeham Ahmad brings together musicians from different countries and cultures. People from Syria, Germany, Iraq and Japan make music together. In this way, the project creates a special form of encounter with and within the music, in which the listeners are also involved. The music is a mix of traditional oriental music and Aeham’s own. The traditional old sounds are changed, expanded and „modernized“. Aeham cares about communication through and with music. The project enables new experiences beyond one’s own horizon. But the most important thing is that it expresses a message of peace. Countries and cultures, musicians and listeners are connected through music in peace. And the music also sends a sign of peace into this world.
The first live CD „ Aeham Ahmad – Nie wieder Krieg!“ is ready. It can only be purchased digitally. Send €10.00 to: paypal.me/AehamAhmad. After receipt of payment, the CD will be sent to you digitally.
Anti-war day 2018 – commemoration at the peace memorial in Wiehlpark and concert with Aeham Ahmad.
Today many millions of people are victims of wars and civil wars, of political and religious persecution and seek protection in other regions of their home country and in neighboring countries – some of them also in Wiehl.
32 years ago, peace-moving Oberbergers set up a greywacke stone in the Wiehl amusement park, a memorial stone with the inscription: Never again war! In a small hour of remembrance on September 1, 2018, the current politically explosive situation in our world was pointed out.
“Gemeinsam eins! Together 1!“
After the studio version, the official edition of the CD “Gemeinsam eins! Together 1!“. The compositions, songs and texts are messages for the year 2022 and beyond. Bringing ideas, thoughts and people together with chords, tones, songs and words, that is the aim of the joint CD.
Aeham Ahmad, the Palestinian-Syrian musician from Yarmouk. At the numerous concerts he enthuses the audience again and again with the intensity of his songs and the virtuosity of his piano playing.
Andreas Lukas, who grew up in Saarland, did a doctorate in political science. He works as an author and freelance journalist. To the motto of the CD “Together one! Together 1 ”he wrote the lyrical thoughts.
Majed Doudieh and Yazan Doudieh, Syrian musicians: they draw drive, vitality and inspiration from music. The creation of sound is as essential as eating and drinking for the two brothers.
Ahmed Kittan, born in Iraq, secretly started playing darbuka or drubuka when he was 15. The music contradicted his family’s religious values. Three years later he played his way from Iraq via Jordan to Ecuador with this drum and finally ended up in Germany.
„JONGA LONGA“
The longa is a Turkish/Eastern European dance, later introduced to Arabic music, often performed at the end of the muwashshah. It generally uses a „rhythm“ equivalent to 2/4, with several sections called „khanat“ (singular „khana“). There is a common form of longa, which is “Lunga Riad bi Nahawand” (“Lunga Nahawand”), which was composed by the Egyptian author Riad al-Sunbati in Maqam Nahawand.
Aeham Ahmad – Piano
Rose Campion: Trombone
Ruzaliia Kasimova: Clarinet
„DRUBUPIANO“
This CD I recorded this CD with my friend Ahmed Kittan. He secretly started playing darbuka or drubuka when he was 15 because music contradicted his family’s religious values It wasn’t until three years later that he played with this drum from Iraq via Jordan to Ecuador and finally ended up in Germany. He has been living and playing his music here for six years to express his culture and to perform traditional and international music in dialogue with other musicians.
„The Life“ has begun
Aeham Ahmad recorded this new CD with his father Ahmad Ahmad and his friend Sami Mustafa.
During the Corona period he thought about what his life was like in Yarmouk during the siege and the war and how Corona has now changed our lives. That is why he calls this CD „Das Leben – Life“. His father plays the violin on two tracks and Sami plays the Arabic lute on two tracks. The CD is on sale now and can be ordered here as a physical CD as well as a download.
The booklet of this CD can be downloaded here.
This first CD of Aeham Ahmad is „Aeham Ahmad – Yarmouk Music for Hope“.
Aeham Ahmad says: „music connects people“. He played his piano attached on a handcart in the bombed streets of Yarmouk. He gave the remaining people joy, hope and trust, especially the children and young people whose everyday life was marked by danger and uncertainty. Jihadists killed one of these singing children and burned his piano. Aeham Ahmad had to flee Syria.
This CD is „Aeham Ahmad & Friends“.
It contains pieces by Aeham Ahmad that he recorded together with good friends on his travels through Europe. This includes Ernesto Briceño, Joao Silva, Jaime Del Blanco Páez, Miriam Torres, Nene Maya, Jon Contle, Martha Roma, Elizabeth Gex, Joan Carlos Buchan Ayala, Joaquín El Duende, Safi Al Hafez, Roberto Ignacio Castillo Lagrange, Albert Enkamianko and Hovhannes Karakhanyan.
Besides, the CD „Keys to Friendship“ with the jazz-pianist Edgar Knecht is available.
It tells the impressive and moving story of an encounter. Two people, Edgar Knecht and Aeham Ahmad, two pianists who shouldn’t have found each other in the grotesquely polarizing world, met, got to know each other and ultimately inspired each other – through the power of music.
The CD „Syria – Music For Peace” Aeham Ahmad recorded with the saxophonist Steve Schofield.
Aeham Ahmad: “This album tells stories about Syria, stories through music. We played for peace there. We had to flee. But we are still playing for peace. „
The CD „Connecting Cultures“ with Aeham Ahmad and the German cellist and composer Cornelius Hummel.
When they play music together, one is initially surprised at the music that is created. The pieces feel like a dialogue between the two musicians, charged with two completely different life stories, but basically the same. Together they overcome linguistic and cultural barriers in their music and show that we are all essentially made of the same tone.
With „Sununu“ Aeham Ahmad and the singer Nora Benamara manage to build bridges between two distant worlds.
They sing and play freely in their different languages and styles. They tell bitter stories of war and the longing for home and peace.
„Sununu“ means „swallow“. A migratory bird that makes the long journey across the Mediterranean. A free migrant who lives here and there.
The comic strip „Music for hope – the story of Aeham Ahmad“ arose from the collaboration between the artist and illustrator Simonetta Pulimeno and the Palestinian Syrian pianist Aeham Ahmad. Simonetta Pulimeno’s images let us embark on a journey that features how the power of music has marked the life of Aeham Ahmad: Music as revolution, music as a tool of survival, as a response to the deafening sound of bombs and a silver lining shining through the agonizing horror of war. Just like music being understood as a universal language, this comic doesn’t need words to reach readers across borders. We hope and wish for Aeham Ahmad’s illustrated story to be a cue for reflection and inspiration.
The „pianist from the rubble“ tells his story himself for the first time: This is the english version of his first book „Und die Vögel werden singen“.
„The music of Aeham Ahmad became a symbol of resistance“
Today, BBC Radio 4
„Aeham Ahmad is a talented and brave man of peace. Please read his book and pass it on to anyone who doesn’t know or understand the plight of today’s refugees“
Stanley Tucci – BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week
„In amongst the wreckage scenes of hope. An amazing man – Ahmad played the piano just to spread love“
Jeremy Vine, BBC Radio 2
„An extraordinary, beautiful book about a man who in the midst of utter terror wheeled his piano into the street and played for Yarmouk. He is amazing“
Nihal Arthanayake BBC 5 Live
Aeham Ahmad’s book “The Pianist of Yarmouk ”is a deeply impressive testimony to resistance and confidence. A young man plays the piano amid the bomb craters. For his neighbours, especially for the children, to distract them from the horrors of war. His game reached and moved people all over the world through YouTube. Now Aeham Ahmad tells his whole story. From his sheltered childhood in a still peaceful Syria, from his blind father, the instrument maker, from his friends Mahmoud and Meras, with whom he roams the streets of Damascus. But he also tells of the beginnings of the rebellion, the beginning of the terrible war and of his life-threatening flight to Germany, which must become his new home. And again and again it is his music that has comforted and encouraged other people and literally saved his own life.
Limited booklet edition:
The passengers tell their stories and experiences from everyday war life in Syria and the capital Damascus. With the book, the authors Aeham Ahmad and Dr. Andreas Lukas give a more precise impression of the conditions with and under which the residents of Syria have to live. It is often not easy to cope with daily life. So get in and accompany the taxi driver on his journeys!
Un giovane suona il pianoforte in mezzo a una strada bombardata. Suona per i suoi vicini, soprattutto per i bambini, per distrarli dalle atrocità della guerra: un’immagine che ha fatto il giro del mondo diventando un simbolo della catastrofe in Siria, ma anche dell’inestinguibile volontà dell’uomo di opporsi in ogni modo alla distruzione. Il suono di quello strumento ha raggiunto e commosso milioni di persone nel mondo su YouTube. Ora Aeham Ahmad racconta la propria storia: l’infanzia in una Siria ancora in pace, l’inizio delle rivolte preludio di una guerra terribile, la fuga per la stessa via battuta da migliaia di disperati. Un lungo e pericoloso viaggio via terra, la drammatica traversata del Mediterraneo, le insidie della rotta balcanica. Fino alla nuova vita in Germania, dove ha realizzato il suo sogno di artista e si esibisce nelle più importanti sale concerti, ma è costretto a vivere lontano dalla sua famiglia rimasta in Siria. Allora come oggi, è la musica che gli ha salvato la vita a dargli conforto e infondergli coraggio.
Het beeld van Aeham Ahmad, spelend op de piano te midden van het puin van een straat in Yarmouk, een voorstad van Damascus, is iconisch. Het symboliseert de immense destructie in Syrië en de onbedwingbare levenskracht van mensen in weerwil van die verwoesting. De video ging via YouTube de wereld over, maar Aeham Ahmad onderging hetzelfde lot als duizenden anderen: een gevaarlijke vlucht over land, over zee, de verschrikkelijke route door de Balkan, achterlating van zijn vrouw en familie, de opluchting eindelijk in Duitsland aan te komen die onmiddellijk gevolgd werd door het peilloze verdriet van familie en vrienden gescheiden te zijn, en zijn hele vorige leven, alles wat hem vertrouwd was te moeten missen. De „“redding‘ van zijn muziek is een weerkerend thema in zijn verhaal. Ahmad wordt in de media wel the pianist from the ruins genoemd. In dit boek vertelt hij voor het eerst zijn eigen verhaal, het hele verhaal.“