Kenan Adnawi was born in Latakia, Syria, and began studying the oud from an early age. He graduated from the High Institute for Music in Damascus and has been an innovator in bringing together the worlds of traditional Middle Eastern music and Western classical music, for example, by performing works for oud and piano. He has toured widely with Lebanese music monarch Marcel Khalife, and also leads his own quartet. He presently lives in Philadelphia, USA.