Sharif Sehnaoui

Sharif Sehnaoui is a free improvisation guitarist. He plays both the electric and the acoustic guitar, with (or without) the use of extended and prepared techniques, focusing on expanding the intrinsic possibilities of these instruments. He now resides in Beirut, his hometown, after more than a decade in Paris, where he started his career as an improviser in 1998, playing at Les Instants Chavirés as a member of several orchestras. He has since performed his music worldwide and played in many clubs and festivals, such as Moers, Konfrontationen (Nickelsdorf), High Zero (Baltimore), Bordeline (Athens), CTM, MaerzMusik, Berlinale (Berlin), Le Guess Who? (Utrecht), Sharjah Biennial, Roskilde, Skanu Mesz (Riga), 100Live (Cairo), and Musikprotokoll (Graz). He has actively contributed to the emergence of an unprecedented experimental music scene in Lebanon.

In 2000, along with Mazen Kerbaj, he co-founded the yearly international festival Irtijal, the oldest improvised and new music festival in the Arab world. Irtijal celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2015.