Sharif Sehnaoui plays both the electric and acoustic guitar with extended and prepared techniques so as to expand the intrinsic possibilities of these instruments without the use of effects or electronics. For his solo concert at Beirut Art Center, Sehnaoui will focus on specific acoustic guitar setups.
Sharif Sehnaoui is a free improvisational guitarist from Beirut.
He moved back to Beirut after more than a decade in Paris, where he started his career as an improviser in 1999, playing at Instants Chavirés, and where he was a member of several orchestras. In Beirut, he has actively contributed to the emergence of an unprecedented experimental music scene. Along with Christine Sehnaoui and Mazen Kerbaj, he created the “Irtijal” festival in 2001, which is, at the moment, the only improvisational and new music festival in the Arab World. He also runs the Al Maslakh label, created by Kerbaj, and devoted to "publish the unpublishable" in the Lebanese musical scene. The main groups he has been in include the “A” Trio, Rouba3i and BAO. He has widely toured Europe and the USA and performed in numerous festivals worldwide.
