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Zade Dirani (Arabic: زيد ديراني, born in 1980), is a Jordanian people Americans pianist and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for the Middle East and North Africa, of Damascene descent, whose genre blending songs are inspired by middle eastern music, Lebanese, pop, and classical music. He has performed before thousands around the world including Elizabeth II and Nelson Mandela.
He has released eight CDs, which reflect his studies of each culture while attending the National Music Conservatory in Amman and the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Audiences throughout the Middle East, Europe, and the United States have attended his performances. His albums have reached #3 on the US Billboard chart. The CD for Zade's project: One Night in Jordan debuted on Billboard at #2 on the New Age Chart, #5 on the Classical Crossover Chart, and #11 on the Overall Classical Chart. Zade's accompanying DVD also debuted on Billboard's Top DVD/Music Video Charts at #18. Zade has toured extensively throughout the U.S and has performed in Spain, France, England, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Lebanon, Morocco, Kuwait, and Egypt.
He moved to the United States in 1988 to study at Santa Clara University and later at the Berklee College of Music, majoring in music composition and business and management. When he began touring the United States, he toured virtually nonstop appearing in grassroots style venues such as guest houses, churches, and , and peoples' homes. Travelling by Greyhound and Amtrak throughout the country, he played as many as 200 events in one year.
Some of his early self-released recordings are reaching the Billboard charts even now, while currently he splits his time between Los Angeles and Miami Beach. His album Beautiful World, which features classical piano compositions, also includes some Middle Eastern rhythms.
Reviewers have described his mostly pop length music which merges with classical, as 'more accessible' and 'the structures are easy to grasp.'
His second CD, Roads to You, was released in June 2004 in the United States featuring Arabic and Latin influences performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. One of the cuts from the CD, titled Kingdom of Peace, was featured at the 2006 Winter Olympics as the Japanese Female Figure Skating Team competed to this song. That song, and the Roads to You CD is the collective effort of more than one hundred musicians from different parts of the world, and was recorded in Miami, Beirut, Prague, and Los Angeles. Roads to You remained on the Billboard Charts more than 20 weeks. His debut CD, self-titled Zade, was released in April 2003, and featured guest musicians from the Middle East and the United States including Charlie Bisharat on Violin, Chris Chaney on Bass Alanis Morissette, Jane's Addiction, Natalie Merchant, Fairuz, and Julia Boutros. The album remained on the Billboard Charts for 13 weeks.
With UNICEF, he performed at Al Zaatari Refugee camp in Jordan, which later inspired the creation of Musiqati or ''My Music'', the world's first music therapy program designed specifically for children in refugee camps, which he launched at Azraq Refugee Camp. The programme helps Syrian refugee children cope with trauma and loss by making music, while also enhancing their skills to communicate and express themselves, and group cooperation. The program was designed by child protection and music therapy experts in consultation with children and adults living in Syrian refugee camps in Jordan.
The evaluation of the program, which was piloted for a year in Azraq refugee camp at children friendly Makani centres for over 4,000 children, shows that 65 per cent of child participants displayed significant progress in terms of their participation, ability to wait and take turns, decision-making, working with others, and ability to express themselves confidently.
Zade also collaborated with UNICEF on the creation of the song Heartbeat. The song is composed by Zade with production by David Santisteban and lyrics by Jad Rahbani. The song is performed by 10 year-old Ansam, an internally displaced girl in Syria who was born blind. The video was filmed in an area of Syria heavily damaged by the fighting. Children performing as part of the choir are all internally displaced and participate, along with Ansam, in UNICEF psychosocial support programmes. They are shown having fun in the video, as children should. He donated the song as “a message of hope from Syria’s children to the children and people of the world, with a simple request to get their childhood back.”
| Un Piano y Amigos | 2020 | 11 | 40 min 18 sec |
| Mediterrani | 2015 | 10 | 36 min 40 sec |
| One Night In Jordan (Live) | 2010 | 13 | 1hr 13 min |
| Beautiful World | 2006 | 10 | 46 min 21 sec |
| Roads to You | 2004 | 11 | 47 min 21 sec |
| Zade | 2003 | 12 | 46 min 57 sec |
| Princess of the Nights | 2021 | 1 | 3 min 43 sec |
| Tango 75 | 2021 | 4 | 14 min 59 sec |
| Las Pulseras del Verano | 2019 | 1 | 3 min 44 sec |
| A Mother's Prayer | 2013 | 1 | 4 min 44 sec |
| The Capitol Sessions | 2011 | 6 | 21 min 55 sec |
| My Arabic Collection | 2020 | 12 | 55 min 36 sec |
| Solo Piano | 2020 | 9 | 31 min 45 sec |
| Piano Love Songs | 2007 | 10 | 39 min 4 sec |
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