TMA149 Members

Omar Shabbar is a Toronto-based musician whose music focuses on themes of mental health, racial discrimination, melancholy, and love. Omar invites audience members to witness stories of his own experiences in an earnest and honest fashion like old friends catching up. Accompanying this rich and captivating storytelling, Omar’s masterful guitar playing is always at the forefront of his music. Having spent the past 23 years of his life studying music, it is clear that a lot of careful thought is put into his instrumentation, arrangements, and compositional style, incorporating musical stylings from indie rock, blues, jazz, world, and experimental music. Without question, Omar’s tool of choice for exploring these musical stylings is the electric guitar. This is evident throughout all of his music as he finds a balance between paying homage to the great guitar players of the past while incorporating new genres and pushing the limits of his own guitar playing. With his honest lyrics and deeply complex guitar work, Omar invites us in, telling stories of his past that are animated within a world of textured sonic landscapes.