Qais Essar

Qais Essar is an Afghan-American musician, based in Phoenix, Arizona. A rabab player and songwriter, he is most noted for the song "The Crown Sleeps" from the film The Breadwinner, which won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Original Song at the 6th Canadian Screen Awards in 2018.[2] He co-wrote the song with Joshua Hill, a bandmate in the now defunct band Qosmonauts. Essar often features instruments more familiar to occidental music to complement the more traditional sound of the rabab and the santoor in his compositions.