Rony Barrak is a Lebanese darbouka player and composer. He began playing the darbouka (Middle Eastern Tabla) at four.
He made his first TV performance at the age of seven and then proceeded to improve his skills through school and family performances. Rony started his first music studies at the age of sixteen, at Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (Music School department) in Lebanon. At the age of seventeen, Rony won the Gold Medal in a competition on the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI) television for talented young musicians in Lebanon and the Middle East.
He moved to London in 1990 where he studied orchestral percussion and Drum kit at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and later taught Middle Eastern Percussion at Trinity College of Music. As a Lebanese origin Rony also hold a British citizenship. Blending eastern and western flavors, Rony is a versatile percussionist, composer, pianist, and arranger. He plays and composes his own fusion style “A colorful blend of Arabic, Latin, Jazz, funk, New Age and chill-out”. He also assembled his own unique percussion set. He has also incorporated into his performances instruments such as car parts. Rony’s love for classical music propelled him to compose symphonic pieces.
Since 2009 he has composed, orchestrated and premiered three symphonic compositions, including a percussion interlude and a Darbouka cadenza, that was performed in the US, Germany and Armenia, plus other work for chamber orchestra that was premiered at Al Bustan Festival in Lebanon 2016. In the same year, he was also commissioned by “Ensemble mini orchestra” in Berlin to orchestrate & perform “Romanian Folk Dances” by Béla Bartók (Bartok beyond borders project). He introducef his Middle Eastern touch to the orchestration that was premiered in Berlin 2016 and 4 other concerts in Budapest and Germany 2022.
Besides original symphonic compositions, Rony has also achieved success since 2005 till 2023 to be the first Darbouka soloist ever performing with Symphonic Game Music Concerts produced by Thomas Böcker (Merregnon Studios). A Video Game Symphony, receiving sponsorship from companies such as Electronic Arts for multiple game concerts. Subsequently, Rony was featured prominently in five video game music albums. Over the years, he has been a darbouka soloist with many world-renowned symphony orchestras and conductors such as the “London Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, WDR Radio Orchestra” among others.
In 1999, his solo performance with his British band at Royal Albert Hall in London UK, and 2004 “Harem world tour” with Sarah Brightman, of 110 concerts in 4 continents. Rony makes regular appearances on television and radio shows in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East, including interviews and solo performances, consistently demonstrating a strong rapport with worldwide audiences. Further, Rony served as the Musical Director and Composer for a Saturday night television show (Iktachafna el Baroud) on LBCI TV-Lebanon in 2006 and on “What the viewers want” on MBC TV in 1997. Since 2005 till 2022 Barrak has been invited to an international World Music Festival “Morgenland Festival” in Osnabrück, Germany, as he is also a major member of an international touring fusion Band that was formed in 2012 “Morgenland all Star Band” produced by Michael Dreyer.
Barrak became a British citizen in year 2000 and has dual citizenship of the U.K. and Lebanon.
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