Born in the village of Ibl al-Saqi in South Lebanon, Dr. Ali Jihad Racy is a respected performer, composer, ethnomusicologist, and specialist in the music of the Middle East.
Acknowledged as a virtuoso on the nay and buzuq, he is equally adept on the mizmar, mijwiz and other folk instruments. In Lebanon, he performed extensively and presented a weekly radio program of folk music.
After graduating from the American University of Beirut in 1968, he came to the United States, where he completed his studies at the University of Illinois, receiving a Master of Music degree in 1971 and a doctorate in ethnomusicology in 1977. He taught ethnomusicology and performance at the University of Hawaii, the University of Washington in Seattle, and San Francisco State University, and is now an Associate professor at the University of California in Los Angeles.
Dr. Racy has numerous publications on music of the Near East, including a chapter on Arab music in The Genius of Arab Civilization (MIT Press). - appearing, in part, in this document.
He is very active as a composer of music for films and television, and currently a ten-part series entitled The Arabs, for which he composed, produced and recorded the music, is being aired on British television. His suite, Ancient Egypt, composed for the King Tutankhamen exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum in 1978, was released on Lyrichord Records. He has also recorded another album for Lyrichord with Simon Shaheen entitled Taqasim: Improvisation in Arab Music.