Taiseer Elias

Artistic career
A master of both Eastern and Western music, oud and violin artist Taiseer Elias performs worldwide. He is founder/conductor of the first Orchestra of classical Arabic Music in Israel, and currently the conductor of the Arab-Jewish orchestra of the JMAD & the Music center in Jerusalem. .Elias has performed works by Vivaldi, Bach and Pagnini with the Haifa Orchestra as well as works by contemporary American and Israeli composers, most notably Menachem Wiesenberg, Michael Wolpe, Miriam Gerberg who have composed concertos for oud and orchestra especially for him.
Prof. Elias has also appeared with the Camerata Orchestra, conducted by Avner Biron, at the Lille Festival in France where they performed the Concertino for Oud, Piano and Chamber Orchestra written by Menachem Wiesenberg. He has also toured the United States with a trio (oud, piano, and cello) performing traditional as well as original compositions written for them by Menachem Wiesenberg.
Among his other activities Prof. Elias is musical director of several programs for the Israeli Television network, director of Arabic music programming for the Voice of Israel Radio and serves on various artistic committees including Art for People, The Rabinovitch Foundation, The Abraham Foundatuon, The Public Committee for Arts and Culture and The Music Institute.
Due to his extraordinary achievements, Prof. Taiseer Elias was included in the 21st edition of the"Who's Who in the World", and in the "2ooo Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century". In addition he was selected as "The Man of the Year-2004" by the "American Biographical Centre" (ABI).

Recordings
Elias has recorded with a number of ensembles including White Bird, Bustan Abraham, Ziryab Trio (of which he is the musical director) and others.

Teaching activity
In addition Prof. Elias is the head of Eastern Music Department at the prestigious Rubin Academy in Jerusalem where he also lectures.