About Salah

Early years

Salah Namek (1983) is born in the beautiful city of Aleppo - Syria. At a very early age, he started playing the cello under the supervision of the Syrian Armenian Prof. Sarkis Koshgerian and the Russian Prof. Constantine Bobov.

Professional Musical Education

Salah proceeded his education at the National Conservatoire in Damascus, where he studied with Prof. Athil Hamdan and graduated in 2009. Salah had the privilege to be involved in several orchestras and ensembles as first cellist. He was also the leader of the Syrian Oriental Symphony Orchestra.

Salah proceeded his education in Italy and in 2019 he obtained his second Master’s degree in classical music and cello performance from The Paganini Conservatory of Music in Genoa.

Awards and tours

Salah is award winner of several national and international cello competitions: In 2004, he won the Syrian National Cello Competition and made his debut as a soloist with the Syrian National Orchestra in Damascus. He also won the 1st prize in Valentina Abrami Annual Competition for chamber music in Genoa, where he performed the beautiful Mendelssohn Trio in D minor.

Salah was member in Chiavari Philharmonic Orchestra where he performed and toured in Italy. He also was the Cello section leader of the Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra (SEPO) and the first cellist of the Damascus String Quintet.

Composition and Arrangement

On the top of his extraordinary talent, Salah is a composer and arranger. He is keen to combine his knowledge of oriental music with that of the traditional classical music, where he sees his role in building bridges between cultures.

Salah Namek Academy

In 2024, Salah laid the first stones for his very own academy, the Salah Namek Academy for Oriental and Intercultural Music.

The academy envisions to develop educational resources for Arabic Cello and to offer courses, masterclasses and workshops for those who aim:

to learn more about oriental music
to learn how to interpret it
to improve their technical skills from a different cultural perspectives
to learn the basics of Arabic language, history of Arabic music and Arabic music modal systems (maqams).