Rafeef Saffaf was born in Aleppo in 1982 and grew up in a cultured family that loved the arts. She spent her early years between music institutes, art centres, and heritage associations in Aleppo. She studied architectural engineering at Aleppo University and specialised in her master’s thesis in the conservation and rehabilitation of old cities. She was a lecturer at her university for eight years. The war forced her to leave Aleppo for Turkey, leaving behind her beloved city and an unfinished PhD thesis. She specialised in project management for water, sanitation, and shelter, working as a project manager in the humanitarian sector for more than nine years. She also lectured at Gaziantep University for more than five years. Her passion for music led her to become part of the cultural family of the Nefes Foundation and a student of singing and vocalism.v
Ibrahim Muslimani is a teacher, author, percussionist, and expert specialist in Syrian musical heritage, primarily the traditional music of Aleppo. He is the subject of the well-known documentary film: Wajd: Songs of Separation. Ibrahim studied with prominent Syrian and Turkish music masters such as Hassan Bassal, Zuheir Meniny, Mohammad Fateh Abu Zaid, Saif al-Din Zain al-Abidin, and Mustafa Büyükipekçi.
Founding Nawa Band in 2009, Ibrahim started his first musical project to revive and propagate the oral heritage of Muwashahat and Qudud, and document Sufi Dhikr suites for preservation and publishing.
His band released two albums. The first was released in 2014 in collaboration with the US label, “Lost Origin Productions”, entitled: NAWA – Ancient Sufi Invocations & Forgotten Songs from Aleppo. The second is the WASL Book and Album, released in Turkey in 2021 with the support of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, AFAC (Music Grant) and Nefes Foundation for Arts & Culture.
Ibrahim founded the Nefes Foundation for Arts & Culture in Gaziantep, Turkey, in 2016 and has directed it ever since, and studied Cinema Direction, graduating from the Fine Arts Faculty and the Department of Cinema & TV at Gaziantep University, Turkey, in 2019.
He has participated locally and internationally in a multitude of activities, festivals, musical, and cultural workshops in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Sweden, France, Denmark, Norway, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Recently, Ibrahim participated in panel discussions and a concert series in the UK at King’s College London and the University of Oxford with the support of the British Council’s Creative Collaboration programme under the theme: Linkages and Differences in the Muwashahat Traditions between Aleppo and Cairo in the 20th Century and collaboration with the Oxford Maqam Ensemble.
He is currently working on his new album project: (Breathes from Aleppo), slated to be tentatively released at the end of 2023. To this end, Ibrahim recently won a grant from the Production Awards Program from Culture Resource (Al-Mawred Al-Thaqafy).