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Palestinian-American composer and conductor John Bisharat.

When the crew of the film One Night With the King - featuring the first pairing of Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif since Lawrence of Arabia - was looking for a musical score with Middle Eastern flavor, they turned to Palestinian-American composer John Bisharat. "It meant a lot to me to score a piece of film with Omar Sharif on screen," Bisharat says.

Along with One Night With the King, which was released in 2006, Bisharat's composing credits include Magdalena, Death Wish 4 and John Tesh's Live at Red Rocks; as well as spots for Microsoft, Coca Cola, PBS and NBC. Bisharat has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra and New Jersey Symphony, among others.

In 2007, Bisharat composed a musical score called "Daa Il Hubb" or "The Malady of Love" which explores non-even tempered Arabic scales. Inspired by a 1932 poem by Emily Bisharat, the music was performed in June 2007 at New York's Carnegie Hall. It consists of three segments: "Hijab", "Shillat" and "Hubbak Dawabbny".

Born in Los Angeles in 1964, it was Bisharat's mother who introduced him to music. "She made us practice four hours a day, starting at 5am," he explains. "My brother, sister and I formed a trio and started playing at all kinds of venues, including at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, when I was 15."

Bisharat grew up playing the piano, cello and bass. He graduated from UCLA's Professional Designation in Film Scoring program in 1986 and has been composing, conducting and producing music for film, television, radio, and recording artists ever since.

It was not until his 20s that Bisharat learned he was Palestinian. "I'm not sure if it was because my father was afraid to tell people. He left Jerusalem and attended the American University of Beirut. I think it hurt him a lot to see the road signs changed from Arabic to Hebrew in Palestine," he says.

Bisharat is delighted to be Palestinian. "I'm as proud as can be. I almost boast about it - I can't wait for people to ask what type of name 'Bisharat' is."

Bisharat is married to world-renowned concert pianist Louise Thomas. Together, they hope to perform for audiences in Palestine some day.