Yosifah Rose

Nathan Craver, oud and percussion, began his musical education with a summer of piano lessons at the age of six, but soon lost interest in favor of other six-year-old activities. He heeded the call of the muse again in junior high school, where he played viola in the orchestra for three years. Nathan began playing the guitar at age 12, and that is when his lifetime musical fever truly took hold. He has since to learned to play the many other stringed instruments including mandolin, mandocello, bass guitar, joura and balalaika - and, chiefly, the oud. Following his wife, Yosifah Rose, into the world of microtonal Arabic maqam scales and Arabic rhythms has greatly enriched Nathan's musical endeavors. In addition to performing Classical Arabic music with his band Al 'Azifoon, Nathan has also been a performing member of the highly respected Aswat Ensemble since January 2014.

Nathan has performed in many different musical formats and styles throughout the Bay Area for the past forty years and has also toured Mexico and Germany. He has recorded with several artists and bands and also has produced several solo instrumental CDs of improvised Middle-Eastern influenced pieces on various instruments.

Nathan studied Creative Writing and Music Theory at San Francisco State University in the mid-70s and Computer Science, Recording Arts and Voice at Diablo Valley and Los Medanos Community Colleges in more recent years. He has studied Arabic percussion with Susu Pampanin, Mary Ellen Donald, Tobias Roberson, Ziad Islambouli and Souhail Kaspar; Oud with Naser Musa and Haig Manoukian; and Arabic rhythms, maqam theory and Arabic ensemble music with Elias Lammam, Scott Marcus, and Rachid Halihal. Find out more about Nathan at his Eastern Strings site!