The ability of the oud to play quarter tones — the notes between the 12 notes on a piano — make the lute-like instrument from the Middle East unlike anything in Western music. Ramy Adly was convinced there was a market of would-be oud players who needed instruments. When the lockdowns hit, Adly set out to tap it. Oud Instrument also sells Adly’s own creation, the iOud, a synthesizer-like version of the millennia-old instrument.

—Jonathan Levin