Haitham Haidar

Haitham Haidar is a Lebanese-Palestinian Canadian tenor highly sought out for his musicality, “standout presence”, and sensitive storytelling. He is a proud graduate of Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music, McGill’s Schulich School of Music, and the University of British Columbia and currently resides in Montreal, Quebec. Haitham is praised for his ‘musical and linguistic versatility’ and his ‘bright’ and ‘innately lyrical voice’ and enjoys performing oratorio, opera, and chamber music across North America, Europe, and Asia.

He has recently been seen as a tenor soloist with Early Music Vancouver, Belgian ensemble Zefiro Torna (at the Morgenland Festival in Osnabrück) and in the lead role as the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion at the Winnipeg Baroque Festival. He has also been a recent soloist with TENET Vocal Artists in New York City, with Orchestre Arion in Montreal, as well as played the role of Evangelist in Schütz’s Weinachtshistorie with Folger Consort in Washington DC. He has also performed as a soloist and ensemble member with groups like Seraphic Fire in Miami and Skylark Ensemble in Massachusetts.

Haitham has been recorded as a soloist and ensemble member on a few
albums namely Distance with the choir of St Andrew and St Paul in Montreal,
Schutz Christmas Story with Yale Schola Cantorum in New Haven, and L’Heure Mauve by Pierre LaPointe in Montreal. Haitham is also a featured soloist on Austin based Conspirare’s Grammy nominated album House of Belonging. You may also find Haitham’s voice in one of the temples in the game Assassins Creed: Origins.

Haitham is a proud member of Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble, a group that
unites music excellence and diversity while offering highly educational and practical experiences to students from middle school to graduate school.

Haitham’s debut solo album Zaytoun has been a dream come true. Producing and artistically leading an album with such an amazing team is a true gift. Zaytoun explores the beautiful intersectionality of Baroque and Arabic music, interlaced with poetry and musical improvisations.

Haitham’s approach to performance has always been humanity first. Being an Arab immigrant in North America comes with its unique set of oppressive challenges and it is because of that and what he sees around him in the field, that he aims to touch people’s hearts with music and compassion and make change in the world the best way he knows how.