Maya Youssef
Teaching Arabic Music,Overcoming Challenges,and her Creative Life Through the Qanun
I’m delighted to welcome Maya Youssef, the world-renowned qanun master and innovative British-Syrian educator. Maya shares with us how her frustrations with the traditional teaching of Arabic music led her to develop her unique system for teaching musicians and dancers in a completely different way. She also shared her past personal crisis as a victim of domestic abuse and how she found the strength to get out of that danger, which is shockingly pervasive. In fact, she said that she chooses to be vulnerable in sharing this because we never know who is listening.
You will be uplifted with clips from Maya’s beautiful second album Finding Home, which I encourage you to buy, and you’ll find all Maya’s projects linked in her website. She also talked to me about her exciting upcoming projects in 2026, including her book about learning and teaching Arabic music, her upcoming album and tours, and her wonderful collaborators. Maya spent the interview with her qanun and you’ll hear her demonstrate several times, including a beautiful improvisation on maqam rast.
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Other episodes you’ll find interesting: Ali Omar El-Farouk, Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto, Kelly Thoma, Mohamed Assani and Olcay Bayir.
