RABAT, 11 October 2006 — Moroccan lute player Said Chraibi has been awarded the Al-Farabi Prize, which is awarded to musicians who excel in different kinds of classical music. Chraibi’s performance and composition are inspired by the Abbasid, Ottoman and Andalusian traditions of Arab music.
Chraibi, who is ranked among the Arab world’s best lutists, has great interest in the ancient Arab, Persian, and Turkish musical scales. Chraibi has received multiple distinctions in Morocco and abroad, including the “Golden Plectrum,” the Lute’s Prize in Baghdad in 1986, the Prize of Merit from the Opera of Cairo (1994), the prize of the best film music for “Yaqut” in 2000.
Chraibi was born in Marrakech in 1951. He started playing lute at the age of 13, and has continued to excel in the instrument since then, Al-Watan newspaper reported.
