Salah Eddin Jawdat Maraqa was born in Amman, Jordan, on the 2nd of November 1981.
He began studying the Qanun at the age of nine at the National Music Conservatory (NMC) / Noor Al-Hussein Foundation.
During the 7 years he studied at NMC, Salah Eddin represented Jordan in outstanding solo performances as well as a member of NMC
Arab Ensemble and the NMC Orchestra in many local and international music festivals in various Arab and European countries.
In 1994 the late renowned Iraqi Oud virtuoso Munir Bachir (1930-1997) became Salah’s musical mentor, and taught him and encouraged him to pursue his musical talent.
In November of the same year Salah participated in the Qanun Competition of the Third Arab Music Conference,
held at the Cairo Opera House in Egypt, where he presented an exceptional performance that reflected his talent
and consequently won him a special prize created especially for him due to his young age. In 1995 he was
awarded the Al-Hussein Gold Medal for Excellence, presented to him by Her Majesty Queen Noor.
Since 2000, Salah has been living in Germany, where he has finished his Master Studies in Musicology at the University of Münster
and been doing a PHD in the history of Arabic Music theory in University of Würzburg.
Aside Ethno-Pop and World Music Salah is concerned with keeping alive a more than a 1000 year old genuine
Arabic music heritage. He has been working with great Musicians like Kudsi Erguner, Ami Flammer, Lluis Claret, Christian Ivaldi, Renaud Garcia-Fons, Bruno Caillat, Philippe Bachman and many others,
playing on the most renowned Stages in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East (Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, UAE, Turkey, France, Holland, Germany, Serbia,
Montenegro and Uzbekistan etc.).
Since 2006 Salah has been touring with his trio Orient-Europe Express, which is composed of himself (Qanun), Bruno Caillat (Percussion) and Philippe Bachman (Piano). The trio bridges over the Music Worlds of the Orient, Jazz and Blues.