Wissam Boustany’s international career as a concert artist and teacher has taken him to South and North America, Europe and the Middle and Far East. In 1995 Boustany founded Toward Humanity, an international initiative which uses music as a catalyst to support humanitarian projects on an international scale.

Born in Lebanon, Boustany began his musical studies with his stepfather. He moved to Britain in 1977, where he studied at Chetham’s School of Music & the Royal Northern College of Music, with Trevor Wye. He has received many awards, notably the Silver Medal in the 1982 Madeira International Flute Competition and (in the same year) the woodwind prize in the Royal Overseas League Competition. He received the silver medal in the Shell/LSO competition and won the 2nd prize in the woodwind section of the first BBC Young Musician of the Year.

In 1997 he was awarded a knighthood by the Lebanese government (Chevalier de l’Ordre du Cedre) in recognition of his music and peace work. On 3rd February 1998 he was presented with the Crystal Award at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Wissam continues to use his music as a powerful healing force to ‘open the doors of inspiration between people and nations, and help us reflect on our common humanity’. He is Professor of Flute at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK.

"As a musician, I have always deeply admired visually impaired people. My initial fascination centered on their highly sensitized and refined sense of hearing, which is so crucial to their day-to-day survival and should be a total revelation to any serious musician.

But my respect goes far beyond their hearing skills…into their inner world – a world of determination, resilience, courage and deep sensitivity.

This Invisible World is inspired by the blind…but dedicated to the world within us all…the world that defines our deeper reality, which remains elusively invisible to the eye. I plan to use this recording as a catalyst for a Towards Humanity initiative supporting the blind and raising awareness about their challenges and achievements.

I hope you enjoy this double-cd release. The first CD features romantic and impressionistic music, while the second cd consists of works that have been written for me over the last years, including a work of my own."
Wissam Boustany