El Zhar was born in France and played for Les Bleus at youth level before opting to play for Morocco, where his parents were raised.

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C.. Johnson was born in El Cajon, Calif.

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The piece, it turns out, was composed by Dena El Saffar, a Chicago-born Iraqi-American who has spent years learning to play the august classical music of her ancestors, the style known as maqam.

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Samir El-Youssef is a Palestinian, born in Rashidia refugee camp in Lebanon.

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Venezuelan-born Dudamel is himself a product of El Sistema, and is also music director of the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, the flagship of El Sistema.

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When you the tour the kitchen and the wine bodega -- as you inevitably will if you secure a reservation at El Celler -- you will quickly realise that all three men were born with a culinary gift that they continue to develop.

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