RAMZI ABUREDWAN grew up in the Al Amari refugee camp in Ramallah, where his family took refuge after being driven out of their home in Palestine in 1948.  The violence of the first Palestinian intifada (1987-1993) marked Ramzi’s childhood and adolescence.
 
At age 16, Ramzi participated in a musical workshop, which proved to be a life-changing experience.  From 1996 to 1998 he studied at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Ramallah. In 1998-2005, Ramzi received a scholarship to study viola at the National Regional Conservatory of Angers (France). Ramzi graduated with a DEM in viola, and chamber music. At the French conservatory, Ramzi met up with other students with whom he created the Dal’Ouna Ensemble in 2000. Today Ramzi splits his career amongst many projects. He is concert performer, bandleader of Dal’Ouna, musical director, composer and arranger for the Palestine National Arabic Music Ensemble, and viola soloist performing Western classical music with chamber music ensembles and orchestras throughout the Middle East and Europe.
 
Ramzi’s deep engagement with Palestinian youth led him to realize a lifelong dream in 2005: the creation of the Al Kamandjati Association.  Al Kamandjati’s mission is to bring musical education to Palestinian children and, in particular, to those who are most vulnerable – the children of the refugee camps. Al Kamandjati teaches more than 500 children per year from the refugee camps of Al Amari, Jalazon, Tulkarm and Qalandia, in the village of Deir Ghassana, and the cities of Ramallah, Jenin, Gaza City and Hebron in Palestine. In Lebanon, Al Kamandjâti runs music schools in the refugee camps of Bourj el Barajneh and Shatila.