Photo courtesy of the artist

2002 NEA National Heritage Fellow Nadim Dlaikan Southgate, MI Lebanese nye (reed flute) player

Nadim Dlaikan was born in Alai, Lebanon in 1941, and as a child began playing the nye, a reed flute. Although his family discouraged him from playing this instrument because it was associated with lowly shepherds, he persisted and even found ways to make his own flutes out of locally grown reeds. Dlaikan began studying after school with Naim Bitar, the country's premiere flutist at the Lebanese Conservatory. Upon graduation Dlaikan moved to Beirut, and traveled frequently throughout the Middle East as part of Lebanon's best-known folk troupe. In 1969, a staff member at the U.S. Embassy heard him playing at a Fourth of July party and encouraged him to perform in the United States. Dlaikan first came to the U.S. as a back-up musican for Lebanese pop singer Samira Tawfik. Eventually he settled in Detroit, home to the largest and most diverse Arab community in the country. Sally Howell of the University of Michigan says musical groups in the Detroit/Dearborn area are an eclectic bunch. "An ensemble of such musicians may contain a self-taught Palestinian American, a recently arrived Lebanese who was trained by an uncle in a very traditional setting, an Iraqi Christian who picked up his love of music in an Iraqi garage band, and a Turk who is still struggling to learn enough Arabic to keep up with what is being said." Within this cultural mix, Dlaikan is recognized as a teacher of tradition and the artistic glue that holds both musical groups and the community together. In addition, he is recognized nationwide as a premiere maker of flutes and a master of his own unique musical traditions.

 
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NEA Heritage Fellows
1982-2012: 
BY YEAR | ALPHA