Born and raised in Beirut, Tarek is a Lebanese-American, New York-based pianist who taught himself jazz at the age of 19. He has been dedicated to exploring relationships between African-American Jazz and classical Arabic music which are most evident in his second album "Lisan Al Tarab: Jazz Conceptions in Classical Arabic", and in his newly released “Peninsular” which fuses jazz with quarter-tones and the rhythms of the Arabian Peninsula. A recipient of many prestigious awards such as the Thelonious Monk Jazz Composers Competition, the Baryshnikov Artist-in-Residence, the Huygens Scholarship, the Prins Bernhard Culture fund and the Abu Dhabi Festival Commission, Tarek has been part of three editions of the official International Jazz Day all-star concerts and performed in venues such as the Smithsonian Museum (DC), National Sawdust (NYC), Atrium at Lincoln Center (NYC), Boulez Saal (Berlin), MuCEM museum (Marseille), the United Nations Assembly Hall (NYC), Kings Place, Aaron Davis Hall, Melbourne Arts Center, Sejong Center for the Arts (Seoul), and Gran Teatro de la Habana (Cuba). Tarek is also an educator, author of two self-published music books on rhythm and a film score composer of films screened in 100+ festivals around the world and broadcasted on AMC network, BBC and Sundance TV.