Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Born in Jerusalem where he grew up and attended the Collège De La Salle, Khoury has been instrumental in contributing to the cultural and musical life in Palestine. In 1987, he was one of the co-founders of the Popular Art Centre in Al-Bireh and its director for six years. Today, the Centre is actively working on organizing various cultural events in different parts in Palestine. In 1993, he founded the Palestine International Festival for Music and Dance and was its general director for two years. In 1995, he came up with the idea of establishing a cultural organization based in Jerusalem that will work on reviving cultural life in the city, promoting Palestinian artists and organizing an annual festival with the same calibre as the Palestine International Festival. Together with six other people who had the same interests, Yabous Productions was established in Jerusalem and a year later, with Khoury as director, the first Jerusalem Festival was organized using various venues in Jerusalem as stages for the musical and theatrical performances. Eight years on, the Jerusalem Festival is one of the most popular and prestigious festivals in Palestine. Khoury continues to volunteer his time as artistic advisor to Yabous Productions.
Khoury is currently the chairperson of the Network of Palestinian Art Centres, which he co-founded in order to lobby for art institutes, to promote the arts and to coordinate cultural activities. Members of the Network include the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre, the Popular Art Centre, Ashtar Theatre, the NCM and Yabous Productions. As general director of the NCM, Khoury is also one of its five founding members. In 1990, Palestinian musicians and music teachers Nadia Abboushi, Amin Nasser, Salwa Tabri, Rima Tarazi and Khoury conducted a study on the status of music education in Palestine and came out with one significant and undisputed conclusion: the desperate need to establish a music school to teach music to children and to fill the huge gap in music education in Palestinian society. The NCM was later established in 1993 with 40 students and three teachers, and in 1996 Khoury assumed his responsibilities as the general director, administering today three branches in Ramallah, Jerusalem and Bethlehem, with over 400 students and around 35 teachers and staff members.
After completing his studies in 1985, Khoury returned to Palestine where he first taught music at the Friends’ Girls’ School in Ramallah and the Hellen Keller School for the visually impaired in Jerusalem and taught a Nay course at Birzeit University (BZU) until 1987. In 1989, and for four years, he was the artistic director of the El-Funoun Palestinian popular dance troupe. For about one year, from 1994 to 1995, he was the director of the department of music and dance at the Palestinian Ministry of Culture, after which he was advisor on music affairs until 1997. He also served as advisor for cultural events for the Bethlehem 2000 Project in 1999.
His music education as he was growing up earned him several positions in bands in Jerusalem. He played the clarinet in a school-based band, and later with two Jerusalem based bands called “Friends of the Earth" and “Al-Manar." While at BZU, Khoury was a dancer with Juthour Dance Troupe and a singer and clarinet and nay player with Sanabel, another BZU band. He was one of the co-founders of Sabreen, a Jerusalem based band which was established in 1980, playing the clarinet, saxophone and nay until 1986. He was also a member of “Washem," yet another Jerusalem band. Khoury is currently a member of the Oriental Music Ensemble, a group made up of teachers of the NCM, where he plays classical oriental music on his clarinet and nay.
Khoury lives in Jerusalem and is married to Rania Elias and has two daughters, Zeina, 12 and Rand, 3.
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