Omar Bashir was born in Budapest in 1970 and began playing the oud at the age of five. He was tutored by his father Munir Bashir and went on to study at the Conservatory in Baghdad. Omar joined the Baghdad Music and Ballet School. He became a teacher there and set up his own band of 24 musicians specializing in traditional Iraqi music. They performed regularly across Egypt, Russia, Turkey and many Arabic countries. He later (1991) returned to Budapest, where he joined the Franz Liszt Academy. His music mixes traditional Arabic music with a jazz-like improvisation.