1928-1997
He was born in Mosul. He learned to play the lute when he was young, and then studied it at the Institute of Fine Arts in 1939. After his graduation in 1946, he worked as a musician in the Baghdad Radio Station, and Head of musical band in Baghdad Television after its establishment in 1956, and ater Head of the music department. He studied at the Institute of Fine Arts, and later founded his own institute under the name ‘National Institute of Music’. He was elected President of the Society of Iraqi Musicians. Munir Bashir continued his studies in comparative musicology in Hungary and earned a doctorate degree. He also assumed several positions in the music business, including: Artistic Adviser in the Iraqi Ministry of Culture and Information, General Director of the Department of Musical Arts, Head of Iraqi National Committee of Music, Secretary General of the Arab Academy of Musie at the Arab League, and Vice President in the | International Music Council of UNESCO, and Dean emeritus of the Institute of Arab Music in Cairo. Munir Bashir composed beautiful solos on the lute, some of which were inspired from the Iraqi heritage.
