Farīd Ghuṣn

Biography

Farid Ghosn (1912–1985) was a Lebanese composer and oud player, born in Alexandria, who died in Beirut. He worked with Sami al-Shawwa, Amin Hasanayn, Mounira al-Mahdiyya and Badia Masabni.

Sayyid Ali Ismail’s study of contemporary press places him in Badia Masabni and Nadira’s March 1935 tour of Tripoli, Sfax, Sousse and Tunis. Reports praised his compositions, including a rumba sung by Nadira in Shabah al-madi. Sfax’s municipal association awarded him a medal for his musical work.

Researcher and oud player Mustafa Said places his work within experiments in oud technique. Said describes Ghosn and Riyad al-Sunbati trying guitar pieces and double-stroke playing on the oud, offering a specific musical account of his stylistic range.

His teaching reached another generation. In his speech published by Cultural Movement–Antelias, Marcel Khalife recalls his childhood, the arrival of an oud at home, and his mother reminding him of a lesson with his teacher Farid Ghosn at the music institute.

In his history of Maghribi music, Christopher Silver traces a postwar dispute over Où vous étiez mademoiselle. Citing Mahieddine Bachetarzi’s memoir, he describes Ghosn claiming the song at SACEM. Silver also documents Ghosn’s name in the register he checked in 2017, alongside Mohamed Effendi Kadri and Bachetarzi.