Today we’d like to introduce you to Nizar Fares.
Nizar, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
After moving from the Middle East five years ago, we chose Massachusetts as our new home, where cultural diversity meets refined artistic taste. As musicians and former music school directors, both my wife and me decided to replicate what we had. It wasn’t easy at first, but with such an accepting community it made it all worth it. That is in addition to the ethnic and world music which are so exotic, besides Hummus of course, which all seem somehow to be a daily bread for New Englanders.
DooZhen, which means “tune up” (from Ottoman/Arab/Persian etymology), is the name of our music school, and since many of our students didn’t want to leave us, with great internet, we kept many of them via online tutoring. Along with more onsite weekly talents, we are eager to teach, tutor, coach and help define future artists. Today we have students from NY, NJ, CA, IL, Montreal, Toronto, Frankfurt- Germany, and many others from Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq in the Middle East. We teach piano, violin, viola, cello, trumpet, singing, choir, speech therapy, and Western and Eastern Music theories. To apply as a student or a teacher, or to simply know more, visit us at www.DooZhen.com.
Before we move any further, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nizar Fares and I have a PhD in Musicology, specialized in Middle Eastern Singing Techniques in addition to holding two Master’s degrees, a former being in Agriculture and the latter in Singing! Between sowing soils and investing in talents, the latter prevailed, leaving me full-time in vocal coaching on many known talent shows, in their international format: X-Factor, The Voice, and others. But also in many music schools. Till present, I’ve taught and coached more than 1200 voice students since 1999. Before starting my music studies in 1996, I won a gold medal in “Studio el-Fan” (studio of Arts), the only talent show for the Arab world back then, where most stars graduated from.
Therefore, my teaching passion didn’t refrain me from building my own career as a recording artist. Known as a gospel singer and being proficient in Middle Eastern Early Christian Music repertoires, I’m invited globally for recitals, concerts and “lectured concerts” (“Concerts commentés”) to sing and teach about Syriac, Assyrian, Chaldean, Arabic worship music. From Classical to Neo-Classical repertoires, 18 albums have been recorded so far. To know more, visit us at www.nizarfares.com.
Though it seems quite a busy life, it wasn’t enough for me to just sing and teach, because it was never about success itself or even about a talent to show. Rather, it was about how to do common good with the talents we have, and to make a difference in people’s lives.
So I followed my call to be a “Musician on Mission” through my own non-profit organization NFGM (Nizar Fares Global Ministry) that was launched in 2017. Now we do, as musicians and volunteers, 5 overseas mission trips, serving Refugees in the Middle Eastern and those scattered in the five continents: Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Greece, to Europe, to Australia, and even locally in the US and Canada. As a matter of fact, our first upcoming event “Thanksgiving in the eyes of refugees” is coming up on November 17th, in the Worcester area. Visit our events page at www.nfgm.org/events.
Coming from a broken family, I had to endure as a child the loss of my father during the Lebanese war, and to take refuge with my mom and sister in different places. Running from the fierce missiles of an unfair childhood was the normal standard. But hey! Life is tough everywhere, but it is rebelling against tough circumstances and letting grace mandate the future that makes the difference and pulls you through. It’s a battle where your character is tested with the risk of losing your integrity. That’s the thing that made me leave my beloved country to join a higher purpose in life; preserving the freedom of speech, of thought, of belief and of conscience. Nevertheless, losing a father in war made me strive to be one myself and I’m so blessed to father two boys, and an up-and-coming baby girl come this October.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Recruiting the right team is always the toughest part. Keeping up schedules is hard in a multidisciplinary work. Between family, teaching music, traveling to perform, and being on missions to serve, sometimes I fall behind. But the next day, there’s another wake up call for striving. My worst lifetime obstacle is just TIME.
As an achiever, I find it hard to have team members that could cope long-term with an intense and demanding multitasking environment. Here, I can take pride in my wife Maya who’s having my back in everything we do. She’s my better half, and orchestrating the right band to play lifetime music is just a blessing!
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the DooZhen Music Academy story. Tell us more about the business.
Our forte is Middle Eastern Music, in all its vocal and instrumental forms, and music theories (the Science of Maqam).
Some projects we’re proud to have achieved include:
- In 2016, we were able to produce a musical, “The Prophet and the Harlot” which was a great success, gathering 40 amateurs and professionals on stage, singing, dancing and acting.
- DooZhen Music Academy is actively involved in Middle Eastern Music activity in the Boston Area, by taking part in “ASTAZA”, The Middle Eastern Ensemble at Boston College every semester. Astaza of BC is directed by Nizar Fares too. Also taking part in many fundraiser concerts for refugees, and/or invited by Middle Eastern student clubs in the Greater Boston universities and colleges.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Along the way, I had some good opportunities to jump in and I had some downsides from taking some other opportunities. If I believe in luck, given my bad childhood, I think I should hold someone accountable for that “bad luck”. So chance and luck are not really my thing, I would prefer to think opportunities and self discipline, actions and reactions. Life has been good to me, even though “good” can be a bad circumstance in the short run.
Contact Info:
- Address: 187 Church Street, Newton MA 02458
- Website: www.doozhen.com
- Phone: (508)494-2627
- Email: info@doozhen.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doozhen/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DooZhen/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DoozhenMusic
- Other: https://plus.google.com/+DOOZHENMusAcademy
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