Arab American composer, vocalist, and oud player LAiTH ALATTAR performs a comprehensive repertoire of traditional and contemporary Arab, Middle Eastern, and regional world music across the US and beyond. Hailing from the global music backdrop of cosmopolitan Baghdad— at the crossroads of the ancient Silk Road connecting Arab, Turkish, Persian, Indian, Greek Sephardic, North African, and Andalusian traditions— LAiTH completed Western musical training in Composition and Voice at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, & Dance in Ann Arbor with Michael Daugherty and Eric Santos, while studying Oud and Maqam Theory under the apprenticeship of renowned masters Abdul Karim Bader, Simon Shaheen, and Rima Khcheich. LAiTH also upholds the innovative teachings of French composer Nadia Boulanger and is unapologetic about learning music by its rule but creating music outside of them. Bringing all that together, LAiTH’s music synthesizes the simplicity and nostalgia of folk music with the bold rudiments and audacity of classical music to create a style that transcends borders and sounds captivatingly familiar and new at the same time.

LAiTH is proactive in showcasing the richness and diversity of Middle Eastern music and developing cross-cultural collaborations that bring together distant communities and musical traditions by highlighting their shared elements of melody and rhythm. These initiatives range from developing a groundbreaking Arab-Indonesian music collaboration with the Gamelan ensemble in Minneapolis and collaborating with Indian sitar and tabla maestros Alif Laila and Anubrata Chatterjee to present a unique Arab-Indian dialogue between Maqams and Ragas at the DC South Asian Music Festival, to partnering regularly with embassies and cultural centers in DC to promote global music diplomacy and understanding, including the Greek Embassy and SHIN-DC to present Musical Conversation about Shared Melodies of Greece, Iraq, & Sephardic Traditions, and joining Qatar America Institute for Culture’s Cultural Crossings exhibit on the shared cultural elements along the Silk Road connecting China, India, Iraq, Morocco, and Europe; in addition to a variety of diplomatic events at the embassies of Bahrain, Canada, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

Most recently, LAiTH joined the Silkroad Project’s Global Musician Workshop (GMW) in Hangzhou, China, bringing the Oud together with the Chinese Pipa, Guzheng, and Erhu as well as other instruments from around the world. LAiTH also performs at the GMW Boston and the annual Berklee at the Gnaoua and World Musical Festival summer program in Essaouira, Morocco, yet another inaugural world music initiative to develop global collaborative projects between local and global artists.

On a more local level, LAiTH also founded DC’s first Middle Eastern, Arab, & North Africa (MENA) Music Ensemble alongside a number of local DC musicians with a premier performance at the Folger Shakespeare Library in August 2024. And while off stage, LAiTH composes and records music for film and theater, with credits including soundtracks for Refusing to be Enemies: The Zeitouna Story (Laurie White, 2007), Our American Story (Keith Famie, 2007), The Sun Rises from There (Abed Senad), Driving an Arab Street (Arthur Hurely, 2003), and the Amsterdam based nonprofit Palestine Podcast Academy (2021) initiative to mentor aspiring young Palestinians.

Leaning on his psychology and behavioral science expertise, LAiTH is working on a broad initiative to address the influence of music on cultural norms and social expectations, and developing new, socially responsible lyrics that promote values of tolerance, diversity, equality, inclusivity, and opportunity across all sectors of society. LAiTH premiered the first song of this project at the World Expo Dubai in UAE and is working on new songs in collaboration with other global artists in 2025-2026.