John Kameel Farah
Berlin, Germany
 John Kameel Farah
 John Kameel Farah
 John Kameel Farah
John Kameel Farah is a Toronto–based composer, pianist and visual artist. He studied composition and piano performance at the University of Toronto, where he received the Glenn Gould Composition Award twice during his studies. In 1999 he had private lessons with Terry Riley in California, and later at the Arabic Music Retreat in Hartford. In 1998, he performed the complete solo piano works of Arnold Schoenberg in Toronto. Toronto’s NOW Magazine named his as Best Pianist 2006. Recently John received the 2011 K.M. Hunter Artist Award for Music from the Ontario Arts Council.
Farah now focuses primarily on his own creative hybrid of improvisation, composition and electronic music. Simultaneously using piano, synthesizer, computer, and at times harpsichord, his solo performances exist somewhere between the concert hall and an experimental DJ set, mixing forays into free improvisation, jazz, electro–acoustics, middle-eastern modes, and ambient minimalism and transforming them into imaginative, surrealistic structures.
In an effort to expand his musical palette, his music draws upon an interest in history, mythology and painting. As a visual artist, his ink drawings have been presented at solo and group exhibitions. He has also composed extensively for solo piano as well as for string quartet, percussion groups, wind ensembles and electronic arrangements.
Between Carthage and Rome: released 06 December 2014.
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