Rami performs at concert halls, cafés, theatres, clubs,  and festivals worldwide with groups including AlSarah & the Nubatones, Zikrayat, and  Raquy DÜM. 

He currently co-directs the Middle Eastern Music Ensemble at Williams College in Massachusetts.

Rami's grooves also can be found on many recordings, soundtracks, and live theatre productions, recently appearing in the Broadway production of The Band’s Visit.  One may also find him at NYC bellydance and tarab parties. 

Rami plays both Arabic and Turkish style on the tabla and other drums in the percussion family. The darbuka, aka doumbek or Arabic tabla, is a chalice drum. It holds an ocean of sounds.  Its voice gauges the tempo and feel of Middle Eastern music.

Rami started out drumming in the Liberty High School Grenadier marching band of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania but always had an Egyptian tabla in the closet. Since 1999, Rami came to find great teachers of this music in Egypt and Turkey and also around New York City. He has had the pleasure to study and perform with some contemporary Turkish and Egyptian percussion masters , including Said el Artiste, Ashraf El Din Hassan, Hamish Henkish, Bunyamin Olguncan, and Raquy. 

Rami has performed at cultural institutions including D.C. Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the MET, Apollo Theatre, the United Nations, TED,  Broadway (The Band’s Visit 2019) and international festivals including: SxSW (2018), Glastonbury (2017), Cully Jazz (2017), WOMEX (2017), WOMADelaide (2015)   Lallapalooza (2005), Celebrate Brooklyn (2012), Central Park SummerStage (2002),   Festival Des Traditions Du Monde (2013), Lincoln Center Out of Doors (2010), FloydFest (2005), Lowell Folk Fest (2010), Chicago World Music Festival (2011, 2017), Ashkenaz Toronto, the Alexandria Summer Festival -Egypt (2009), Sibiu International Theatre Festival -Romania (2005, 2008), and Novaja Drama Festival in Russia (2003). 

As well as drums, Rami also holds a Masters degree from the Gallatin School at NYU, and a BS Sp from Northwestern University in Performance Studies and International Studies.

He teaches Arabic and Turkish percussion through workshops, private lessons, and at our darbuka camps in Goshen, NY.

2019 marked the 20th year of our drum camps in the Catskills.