His family emigrated from Egypt to Australia when he was three.[2] Initially attracted to the trumpet, he decided to learn the oud when he was eight, after seeing a movie about Egyptian musician Sayed Darwish.[3] He is classically trained, having completed a bachelor of music at the University of New South Wales, where he was awarded a Freedman Fellowship for Classical Music.[2] In the 2000s, he also studied in Egypt with violin player Esawi Dagher, son of the legendary violin player Abdo Dagher.