A rebel with an oud: Inventing a future for Lebanon

Bassam Jalgha started playing the oud, a traditional lute-like instrument, at the age of 12. But getting it in tune is fiendishly difficult, making the young musician wish for a solution. A decade later, he was given the chance to make his musings real. He won the first season of the pan-Arab TV extravaganza Stars of Science with his design for an automatic tuning device, taking home a phenomenal $300,000 prize as a reward. But despite the money, a working prototype and a passion to start an innovation revolution in Beirut, he found that years of civil war had stolen people’s appetite for building something new. His act of rebellion ever since has been to doggedly forge ahead with his invention and prove to himself and his country that there is hope for creativity and change in Lebanon.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Producer: Anna Lacey

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(Photo: Bassam Jalgha playing the oud. Credit: Hatim Belyamani)