SOUNDS OF CLAIRE
ALEX WAKIM
FOR YOUR
GRAMMY® CONSIDERATION
Best Contemporary Instrumental Album
Best Instrumental Composition
Independence by Alex Wakim
Best Arrangement, Instruments And Vocals
Je suis seul ce soir (arr. Alex Wakim)
ABOUT
LISTEN
Sounds of Claire is a dreamlike journey through memory and imagination, composed by Alex Wakim as a tribute to his grandmother, Claire Maalouf Haddad. Blending jazz, tango, Arabic modes, and classical influences, the album reimagines the Levant of the 1930s–50s through her eyes, before exile reshaped her world. Each track offers a vignette: a train ride from Beirut to Damascus, a lavish embassy party, a wedding under ancient cedars. In Wakim’s hands, memory becomes music, and lost moments are reborn in sound.
About ALEX WAKIM:
With work showcased at SXSW 2025, Cleveland Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival 2024; his new album, Sounds of Claire - the score to his grandmother’s levantine childhood - to be released with Bright Shiny Things); an original music-based book, Dust and Ions, juxtaposing the Beirut port explosion and the NEOWISE comet, co-written with Yara Zgheib and set for publication by Rose Metal Press; and a recent premiere with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra - Alex Wakim’s unique musical aesthetic has led him to push barriers in sound and story.
His music is found scoring Julianne Moore, propelling large public initiatives - including the Kansas Health Foundation and the Greater Wichita Partnership, in collaboration with Gardner Design - and featured in the Raindance & Woodstock Film Festivals, Doc NYC, off-Broadway at the Alvin Ailey Theater, the National Portrait Gallery, and more.
His experimentation with traditional Arabic instruments and tropes, such as the ney, to create unique synths and worlds of expression in film have led a cinematic Middle-Eastern album to be published with APM, as well as receiving the Reel Change Grant for his work on Nay Tabbara’s film, Ebb & Flow, which premiered at Tribeca. His second album, Chasing Moons, has also received acclaim, released under the Artists Recording Collective label. Based in NYC, collaboration is key to Wakim’s approach to creating.
He also loves stargazing, history, and subtly heartbreaking stories – and is currently developing Claire, an album about his grandmother’s life and exile, as well as An American in Beirut, a dark comedy about the power of laughter.