The Kurdistan Regional Government’s General Directorate of Syriac Culture and Arts mourns musician and researcher Bassem Hanna Putros, who passed away on Tuesday 2 June 2024, in the city of Auckland, New Zealand.
The Directorate, in the person of its General Director, cadres and employees, extends its sincere condolences and sympathy to his family and admirers, praying to the Lord that the deceased may be showered with His vast mercy in His heavenly kingdom and that his family may receive patience and solace.
The late musician Bassem Hanna Putros was born in Baghdad in 1934. He graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts’ Music Department in 1954. He was one of the founding members of the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra’s second generation. He was also active in the field of writing and research.
He worked as editor-in-chief of several specialised music magazines, including “al-Qitharah” and “Music and the Child,” which were issued by the Department of Musical Arts at the Culture and Information Ministry, as well as the “Arab Music” magazine, issued by the League of Arab States’ Arab Music Academy.
The deceased was a certified expert on the liturgical music of the Chaldean Catholic Church, and he taught it at the Shim’un al-Safa Seminary, the Babel College of Theological and Philosophical Studies, as well as the Chaldean Catholic Convent at al-Za’faraniyah in Baghdad. Additionally, he was the secretary of the Iraqi National Committee for Music for the period from 1974 until his functional retirement in 1992.