Rishad Zahir:

Rishad Zahir, son of Legendary Afghan singer Ahmad Zahir, was born in Seattle Washington during his parent’s visit to the states. After his birth, his parents decided to reside in the U.S permanently. But not too long after, they missed their beautiful homeland and decided to move back to Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan, Rishad attended Estiqlal School until the 3rd grade. But his family had to leave Afghanistan like most Afghans in 1979 due to the Soviet invasion. He came back to the U.S with his mother.

Rishad’s love for music was obvious at a very early age. His musical talent was encouraged and he was given his first keyboard at the age of 10. He learned the keyboard by singing and playing along to his father’s songs. He composed his first song “Az man Juda Mashaow” when he was just 11 years old. He continued learning music and recorded his first album titled “Guli Intezar” in 1989. Rishad is musically self taught mainly through studying books and listening to diverse international music including classical, ghazals and light pop. He released his second album in 1991 titled “Tu Guli Naza Hama”. His third album was released in 1993 titled “Negahi Gahi” during his brief stay in Germany where he spent some time with the Late Ustad Hashim challenging his musical abilities to the fullest by mainly composing Ghazals. His last album titled “Eshqi Man” was released in 2000 in which he composed 7 of the 8 songs himself.

Currently, Rishad resides in Virginia, U.S.A where he composes, arranges and records music in his home studio. He is eagerly working on his future projects.