Assi Rahbani

Assi Rahbani was born in Antelias near Beirut and studied Western classical composition under Bertrand Robillard while immersing himself in Eastern modal music. In the early 1950s, alongside his brother Mansour and his wife, the iconic singer Fairuz, he launched a revolutionary musical renaissance that permanently transformed the Arab musical landscape.

The Rahbani Brothers created dozens of monumental musical operettas performed at the Baalbeck International Festival, hundreds of timeless songs, and three feature films. Assi was the rigorous musical architect and demanding visionary behind their productions, distilling the folklore of Mount Lebanon into a sublime, modernized art form that became a symbol of Lebanese unity and beauty.