Samah Boulmona

Samah Boulmona is a self-taught accordion player, composer, and singer hailing from Chanay, Lebanon. Inspired by his father playing the Oud, he imitated traditional rhythms and Maqams (Classical Arabic music scales) at an early age using toy keyboards and fake plastic percussion. At the age of 20, Samah custom tuned his first accordion to access a wider range of scales and Maqams. In 2012, he ended up in Hamra, Beirut, where he would spend 8 years playing, singing, acting and composing songs for live cabaret shows, and collaborating with the country’s most renowned musicians. As an educator, Samah has led workshops for a number of non-profit organizations in Lebanon including Al Jana, Action For Hope, and other NGOs that engage with Syrian and Palestinian refugee communities. After OneBeat 2018, Samah directed the OneBeat Lebanon residency, recorded his first single, and composed a soundtrack for the documentary Kash Kash. Now living between Beirut and Rome, Samah now performs in a variety of bands and projects.