Raymond B. Sarweh was born in Damascus, Syria, into a well known family of professional musicians. He studied percussion with ‘Abdel-Men’em Isma’il, and theory with his brothers Selim and Emile Sarweh, and obtained his Arabic music degree from the Damascus Conservatory of Music. Before immigrating to Canada in1969, he performed in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt, with the stars of Arabic singing and dancing. After coming to Canada, he created the first professional Arabic music band in Toronto and performed extensively in many Canadian cities, as well as in the USA and Latin America. He became known as a virtuoso tambourine performer, as well as a singer, lutenist and composer. He has recorded 22 of his songs and hopes to record the remaining 70 soon. He has been a regular member of the Ensemble and a much sought after percussion teacher.