Music
Jad & Rabih.
A Lebanese-Australian father-and-son duo. Thirteen original compositions, three self-produced concerts, and a 30-piece East–West orchestra on a single stage.
Our story
Music was in our veins before I was born.
My father, Rabih, won Studio El Fan, Lebanon's answer to The X Factor, and went on to tour the world with the greats of Arabic music, Melhem Barakat and Najwa Karam among them. Playing other people's songs was never enough for him, so he always composed.
I picked up the violin at six, after trying more than twenty instruments, and he made sure I could nurture it. In 2019 we released our first piece together. After the jam that started it, we looked at each other and said, “What a disaster.” The name stuck. Thirteen compositions later, it is still how we write.
The music is rooted in Arabic maqam and open to everything else: Spanish, Indian, Latin, blues, rock and hip-hop. My brother BEAST raps over the orchestra. Rabih arranges and conducts from the keys. I put it all together, from the composition to the visuals and the creative direction behind every film and concert.
“We don't blur them. We marry them.”On bringing musical cultures together, to The Beiruter, 2026
East and West, married on one stage.
The mizmar, kaval, qanun, oud, buzuk and tabla sit inside a Western string and brass section, so maqam is performed alongside orchestral harmony rather than in a separate room from it.
- Art Music Awards 2026Nominated, Work of the Year: Large Ensemble, for The Dream.
- Timbaland and Mike DeanBoth have praised the music.
- Create NSWCultural Access funding for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
- AIM Business Awards 2024Winner, Creative Arts.
Films
From the stage.
Recaps, rehearsals and moments from the 2026 season.
The Disaster series
Thirteen original compositions.
From our first release in 2019 to the premiere of number 13.
Violin · Composition · Creative Direction
Jad Al Masri
Co-composer of every piece, and the one who puts it all together: the visuals, the films and the staging of every concert.
Keys · Composition · Musical direction
Rabih Al Masri
Studio El Fan winner who toured the world with the greats of Arabic music. He co-composes the Disaster series, arranges for the full orchestra and conducts the night from the keys.
Reimagined
Golden-era classics, given new life.
The songs we grew up on, rearranged for an East–West orchestra.
Behind the music
The jams, the films, the reactions.
Jam sessions, analysis and the moment Timbaland heard it.
Jad & Rabih · Live in Sydney
5 March 2027.
Pavilion Theatre, Sutherland. A 40-piece East–West orchestra and choir, and the world premiere of The Disaster 13.
Contact
Start a conversation.
Keynotes, panels, commissions, collaborations and press. Tell me what you're building and where it's heading.