Nemat Battah is a Palestinian-Jordanian singer, oud player, composer and educator. She is currently based in Helsinki, Finland, where she is a lecturer and Vice Head of Sibelius Academy’s Global Music Department.
Nemat is trained in traditional Arabic music, and has collaborated with internationally renowned artists in Finland and abroad. She has been singing songs from the famous repertoire of Arabic classical and folk music since the age of eight. Nemat also composes her own music, with parts of which she explores and navigates her experiences of transgenerational war trauma as a person of Palestinian heritage whose family was forced into exile from Palestine to Jordan in 1948. Her recent research project, 'Something Like Home', explores the common ground of love and compassion between her family members, especially those who have been navigating the traumas of war.
Nemat’s compositions are influenced by the vocabulary and ornamented rhythmical cycles of Arabic, Middle Eastern, and North African melodies, and inspired by intercultural dialogue and collaboration. In her band Staerna she is exploring the similarities that exist between Swedish, Norwegian, and Arabic folk music. Nemat is also working on two other projects in Finland - with kantele player Juulia Salo creating children’s music in Arabic and Finnish using the traditional Arabic maqamat (melodic types) and with Kari Ikonen, the inventor of Maqiano (a patented, portable microtuning system that enables pianists to play the maqamat and other microtones on acoustic piano), where they perform a selection of Arabic traditional songs, as well as Nemat and Kari’s compositions.
Through her work at Sibelius Academy, Nemat continues to be involved with music and community engagement projects both in Finland and abroad, including a trip to Jordan in 2022 where she facilitated collaborative music workshops with Syrian refugees.
