UNESCO Artist for Peace

Marcel Khalifé was born in 1950 in Amchit, Lebanon. He studied the oud (the Arabic lute) at the Beirut National conservatory, and, ever since, has been injecting a new life into the oud.

From 1970 to 1975, Marcel Khalifé taught at the conservatory and other local institutions. During that same period, he toured the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the United States giving solo performances on the oud.

oud playing was traditionally constrained by the strict techniques that governed its playing. Highly talented and skillful musicians such as Marcel Khalifé were, however, able to free the instrument from those constraints and thus greatly expanding its possibilities.

In 1972, Marcel Khalifé created a musical group in his native village with the goal of reviving its musical heritage and the Arabic chorale. The first performances took place in Lebanon. 1976 saw the birth of Al Mayadine Ensemble. Enriched by the previous ensemble's musical experiences, Al Mayadine's notoriety went well beyond Lebanon. Accompanied by his musical ensemble, Marcel Khalifé began a lifelong far-reaching musical journey, performing in Arab countries, Europe, the United States, Canada, South America, Australia, and Japan.

Marcel Khalifé has been invited several times to festivals of international fame such as: Baalbeck, Beit Eddine (Lebanon), Carthage, El Hammamat (Tunisia), Timgad (Algeria), Jarash (Jordan), Arles (France), Krems, Linz (Austria), Bremen (Germany), ReOrient (Sweden), Pavia (Italy), World Music Festival in San Francisco, New York, Cleveland (the USA).

He has performed in such prestigious halls as the "Palace of Arts" in Montreal, "Symphony Space" and "Merkin Concert" in New York, "Berklee Theatre" and "New England Conservatory" in Boston, "Royal Festival Hall", and "Queen Elizabeth Hall" in London, "UNESCO Palace" of Beirut, Cairo Opera House (Egypt), "Reciprocity", "House of the Cultures of the World" and "UNESCO Hall" in Paris, "Central Dionysia" in Rome, "Yerba Buena" in San Francisco, "Sodra Teatern" in Stokholm.

Since 1974, Marcel Khalifé has been composing music for dance which gave rise to a new genre of dance, the popular Eastern ballet (Caracalla, Sarab Ensemble, Rimah, and Popular Art Ensemble).

Marcel Khalifé has also been composing soundracks for film, documentary and fiction, produced by Maroun Baghdadi and Oussama Mouhamad among others.

He has also composed several purely instrumental works like The Symphony of Return, Chants of the East, Concerto Al Andalus- Suite for Oud and Orchestra, Mouda'aba (Caress) , Diwan Al Oud, Jadal Oud duo, Oud Quartet, Al Samaa in the traditional Arabic forms and Taqasim, duo for oud and double bass and most recently Sharq performed by the Italian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Piacenza Choir.

Marcel Khalifé's compositions have been performed by several orchestras, notably the Kiev Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of Boulogne Billancourt Orchestra, The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the city of Tunis, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Italian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra and the "Absolute Ensemble".

Since 1982, Marcel Khalifé has been writing books on music that reflect his avant garde compositions and the maturity of his experience.

His challenges, however, are not only musical in character. Interpreter of music and oud performer, he is also a composer who is deeply attached to the text on which he relies. In his association with great contemporary Arab poets, particularly Palestinian poet par excellence, Mahmoud Darwish, he seeks to renew the character of the Arabic song, to break its stereotypes, and to advance the culture of the society that surrounds it.

His lyrical recordings adds up to about 20 albums, the likes Promises of the storm, Ahmad Al Arabi, Weddings, Peace Be With you, Ode To A Homeland, Arabic Coffeepot, The Children, and Body(Al Jassad,) to name a few.

On his journey, Marcel Khalifé invents and creates original music, a novel world of sounds, freed of all pre-established rules. This language elevates him to the level of an ambassador of his own culture and to the vanguard of Near Eastern music in search of innovators.

Lebanese composer, oud master and singer Marcel Khalife was awarded the 2007 Grand Prize of the prestigious L'Académie Charles Cros (www.charlescros.org) in the World Music Category. L'Académie Charles Cros is the French equivalent of the US Recording Academy (also known as the Grammy Awards). The award was given in recognition of his latest work Taqasim, which Khalife dedicates to his friend the renowned Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

Taqasim is an all instrumental composition for oud, double bass and percussion, featuring Peter Herbert on bass and Bachar Khalife on percussion.

Taqasim is released by Nagam Records/Connecting Cultures labels. The work was critically acclaimed and well received by music critics as well as audiences worldwide.

L'Académie Charles Cros was established in 1948 and named after the acclaimed French poet and inventor Charles Cros. This year marks the 60th Anniversary of the award. The ceremony took place at RADIO FRANCE in Paris on November 30th, 2007. This award came in the wake of the completion of Khalife¹s successful 24 cities US and Canada tour, in which Taqasim was the opening part of his performances through out the tour.

Marcel Khalife pays his respect and eulogies to Mahmoud Darwish

For many years, my music has enjoyed a special, and especially gratifying, association with the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish. Our respective corpora have grown to be reminiscent of each other, so that the name of each of the twain, instantly and without reflection, would evoke the name of the other. How very appropriate, for all of my musical milestones that punctuate my thirty-year career, beginning with Promises of the Storm and culminating with The Doves Fly, are graced with the lyricism and poignancy that are uniquely Darwishian. Even before we got to know each other personally, I felt as though Darwish’s poetry, with its divine assertiveness and prophetic cadences, had been revealed to me and for me. I could nearly savor his mother’s bread that has become iconic to his readers. I could feel the eyes of his Rita as deeply as I could feel the pain that his Joseph suffered at the hands of his treacherous siblings, and I could identify with his passport, which I fancied carried my picture, just as personally as I could identify with his olive grove, his sand, and his sparrows. They were all, at a personal level, mine.

“And I adore my life because if I die I will be ashamed of my mother’s tears”- Darwish

Perhaps, this is the only time that Mahmoud Darwish felt ashamed and it is because he departed before his mother. He left her the tears to shed but not a poem to eulogize him with. I am the one who carried his poetry and traveled with it to far away places. I am the one who carried his soil and longing to his mother, his Rita, his olive tree and grape vine. Would you believe me when I say to you that poets do not die, but only pretend to?

Marcel Khalife