Solhi al-Wadi

Solhi al-Wadi died on 30 September 2007 at home in Damascus. He never recovered from a brain hemorrhage which struck him down while conducting the Syrian National Orchestra in a concert on 27 April 2002.

In 1995 Solhi al-Wadi conducted the first-ever performance of an opera in Syria, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, which was performed at the ancient Roman amphitheaters of Bosra and Palmyra for huge crowds of enthusiastic listeners.

In 1991 another dream of Solhi al-Wadi's came true: the founding of the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra, which gave its first concert under his baton in the same year. Soon invitations started pouring in from all over the world, and over the next few years al-Wadi took the orchestra to perform in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Spain, Turkey, Germany and the USA. And also al-Wadi himself was invited to conduct orchestras in several countries of the world.

In 1990, after years of negotiating with the Syrian Ministry of Culture and other necessary instances, he succeeded in fulfilling his dream of opening the High Institute of Music and Theater, which provides musicians, theater students and dancers in Syria with higher education, without needing to go abroad to study, and he was appointed its dean. He was also appointed professor of theory, history of music and music appreciation in this institute.

In 1960, after graduating, Solhi al-Wadi returned to Damascus and began work on establishing serious music as part of the fine arts scene in Syria. In 1962 he founded the Arab Institute of Music and was appointed its director. He established relations with several foreign countries, especially the former Soviet Union, to be able to bring qualified teachers in all disciplines and instruments, to teach Syrian youngsters, who were interested in learning music. In 2004 the Arab Institute of Music was renamed the Solhi al-Wadi Institute of Music.

Solhi al-Wadi (Arabic: صلحي الوادي‎, ṣulḥī al-wādī) (1934–2007) was an Iraqi-born musician, conductor, composer, educator and director, who lived most of his life in Damascus, Syria.

Solhi al-Wadi was born in Baghdad on 12 February 1934 to an Iraqi father and a Jordanian mother, who moved to live in Damascus, Syria, when he was a child. He went to Victoria College, a British boarding school in Alexandria, Egypt, where he studied violin and composition at the local conservatory. In 1953 he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Music in London to pursue higher studies in music.